Project Management

Real SCM Challenges. Real SCM Experts. Real SCM Solutions.™

HOME
Business Management
Career Management
Design Management
Environment
Inventory Management
Lean Management
Logistics Management
Project Management 1
Project Management 2
Purchasing Management
Quality Management
Risk Management
Six Sigma
Supply Management

Are You Managing Requirements, or are they Managing You?

By Paul Kostek
pkostek@aol.com

Why do projects fail? Feel like they are out of control? Are you managing the requirements or are they managing you? Are you making decisions based on on-going customer and design team members feed-back on the requirements? Or are the decisions being made to respond to problems? Requirements management determines one thing, the success of a project. Without clear requirements we have no way of measuring progress, determining when we are done, or fielding the product for the customer (customer buy-off).

Even in industries such as aerospace, that have long had specialists (systems engineers) to develop and manage the requirements, failures have occurred. Recent satellite program failures have been attributed to requirements being out of control, with multiple parties attempting to make decisions about what functions a satellite is to perform. If a large scale project can have problems what about a simple (relatively speaking) project? Clear understanding – whether leaving a meeting, phone call, or email make sure everyone understands what has been agreed to and when this is to be done.

As I mentioned in the article on Agile Project Management a few months back, on-going communications is essential to project success. Part of this is reaching agreement on the requirements for the project. In a fast paced project environment we can’t afford to wait until the requirements are rock solid and unchanging, and of course we know they never are. But we can get to a point where the baseline for the project has been established. While we need clear definition of the requirements and buy-off of these by the customer, we can’t afford to get so wrapped up in the requirements phase that we don’t have time to complete the project. Where even with change being inevitable, a baseline must be established identifying what we are building and what the performance must be.

Tools can help in managing requirements, but adding any tool will require team training and can end up impacting the project schedule. A process needs to be in place to successfully implement a program or project.

Key items to consider in requirements development/management

	Customer buy-in must be done on an on-going basis.
	Design team buy-in must also done on an on-going basis
	Verification/Testable – As requirements are developed we need to determine how they will be tested and verified. If we can’t identify how to verify a requirement then it needs to be reworked.

When starting any project make sure a plan is developed to capture and manage the requirements. Your organization should have a process in place for this, if you don’t, you won’t be managing the requirements, they will be managing you.

SME Solutions

ISM Solutions

CSUH Solutions

LeanSCM
Solutions