Requirements Gathering

Business requirements gathering is that process and is typically carried out by specialists who are tasked with helping the business define what it wants and then handing it over to Project Managers to implement a successful project. What is the recipe for success such experts should follow?

In May 2012 The Corporate IT Forum conducted a Reality Checker survey to understand how projects can best be approved, resourced, tracked and evaluated and what soft skills and cultural issues prevent success. Key findings show that requirements gathering is a mature and well embedded process but one that suffers from a lack of understanding or mis-communication with the Business. Contributing organisations represent an annual IT spend of £6.5 billion, employ 850,000 people and have over 800 years experience with Requirements Gathering and Business Analysis.

Headline findings

• Group workshops and individual interviews most used techniques.
• Main challenge is lack of understanding or bad communication with the Business.
• Over a quarter use MS Visio.
• A sixth have no tool to track or manage requirements.
• Approval involves the Board and project sponsor.

A free executive summary is available here.