Читать книгу Microsoft Project Fundamentals - Teresa S. Stover - Страница 57

Your project typically develops a new product, service, or other result. Requirements specify the condition or capability that a product or service must achieve in terms of function, features, technical specifications, quality standards, performance, or other characteristics.

In addition to product requirements, you have project requirements like the all-important total cost and finish date. By defining both types of requirements, you are managing customer expectations as well as gathering the information you'll need to develop the project's work breakdown structure (WBS) as the list of requirements become the focus of the project work.

Developing detailed requirements before starting the project is essential in a waterfall project. However, because of the agile project's nature of exploration and discovery, requirements can be broader and loosely defined, more as a starting point. Requirements are defined and reprioritized throughout the course of multiple project sprints, deliverables, and feedback loops.

In either case, identifying requirements is key to project success, because the final outcomes of the project are measured against the defined requirements. In the majority of projects that exceed budget or schedule, that are canceled, or that otherwise fail to meet their goals, the reason tracks back to issues relating to requirements.

The first step is to gather a list of potential requirements. Consider the following to tease out requirements with users and other stakeholders:

 Brainstorming

 Interviews

 Questionnaires

 Reviewing existing documentation

 Observing end users in their relevant tasks

 Mapping the as-is state for the existing product or service

 Prototyping

You might find prototyping an especially valuable deliverable in either an agile or a waterfall project. Whether it's a small-scale product, mockup, or simulation, you can present prototypes to your stakeholders at strategic points of a project to validate the requirements and make decisions and adjustments accordingly.

After you develop the list of requirements, work with your stakeholders to review and prioritize the requirements. A good method is to work with the group to reach consensus on the highest-value requirements. Then together rank those requirements in their priority order. This way, you and your stakeholders can finalize the requirements that will drive this project.