Knowledge Area: Project Scope Management

• The detailed project requirements will have to be collected from the various stakeholders. In the case of an ERP, we need to collect requirements from all levels of stakeholders. We need to understand the expectations of CXO level stakeholders, department head level stakeholders, departmental experts, end users of the solution in each department, from their IT department who LATER on will own the solution.
• The requirements will have to be collected and understood through different mode of interaction with the stakeholders. Stakeholders initially may not know very clearly about all their requirements. Some cases stakeholders may find it difficult to explain and articulate their requirements. The project manager and the TEAM will have to drive this process of requirements gathering by facilitating and driving the process.
• Requirements are collected from groups of stakeholders and the final concurrence and agreement of requirements are also done with the group of stakeholders. Business Analysts and functional experts may be involved in this process. Below are some of the techniques which are used for requirement gathering
  • Data Gathering (Brainstorming, Benchmarking, Focus Groups, Interviews, Questionnaires and Surveys)
  • Data Analysis (Analysing various existing documents of the project such as business case, agreement, regulatory documents, proposals etc.)
  • Observation (Shadowing and observing how people are working)
  • Categorizing and grouping of ideas and requirements (Affinity Diagram)
  • Prioritizing the requirements (Nominal Group Technique – Voting with the group. Using MuScoW and other techniques of PRIORITIZATION )
  • Prototyping
• A detailed requirement document is prepared using the above techniques as applicable. The requirements thus gathered can further be classified in various categories such as functional, non-functional, reliability, security, user interface related, quality, and regulatory, transition etc. Such CLASSIFICATION will make it easier for the team to visual different aspects of the requirements and accordingly give appropriate focus in addressing them.
• For more detailed understanding of this process, PLEASE refer:Requirement collection