You do not have to go it alone when it comes to developing requirements. There are many templates and well-defined approaches to help in this regard.  If you are developing a complex system, it is good to break the requirements up, starting at the highest level of abstraction.  We will call that systems specification.  The […]

In keeping with our requirements work, we will start by identifying the attributes of a good requirement.  We start our project off with the requirements, so it stands to reason if we start off poorly or in the wrong direction, we will not make the objective.  This situation will get worse the longer we spend […]

Technical documentation serves as a repeatable communications medium. That is, written so that anybody reading with the appropriate competency will come away with the same conclusion.  Not filling this gap or relying upon verbal communications has great limitations. Many of us have likely played that game as children where a group of people line up […]

In this series on CMMI (capability maturity model integration) and requirements, we have discussed: understanding requirements commitment to the requirements control changes to requirements traceability of requirements from detail to scope and back inconsistencies, the difference between of what is included and what is being done The processes above work together and amount to managing the […]

This area of CMMI requirements management has big implications on the project.  Experience suggests project managers can get lost in the minutia of the work, but that is the connection to the project.  The reason we have taken on the project is to produce some result that is defined (or it should be) in the requirements.  […]

Recent events have prompted us to preempt our CMMI requirements management series for this waste of company resources that we can only attribute to an overly politicized work environment and fear.  The downside of functional or siloed organizations is demonstrated in the sentiment “fix your own sandbox”. Complications of the Organization In general, the work […]

We will continue our review of CMMI and requirements management practices.  As we have seen in the earlier posts, managing the requirements is necessary for efficient development and doing so has positive impacts on the project as well.  Specifically, the project benefits when the organization stands behind attaining the requirements, and is in for a […]

If commitment to the requirements is a significant source of failure, it is followed close behind by the management of changes or additional requirements that come from doing the work.  Though many project managers may believe that once a project is underway, there shall be no changes; that is a myopic approach.  Change happens.  As […]

Knowing and Committing to Requirements Once we have identified and understood the requirements, we then must gain organizational support for delivering to meet the customer demand.  It does not matter if we are a supplier or taking on a project internal to our company, we will need people to stand behind the endeavor – commitment. […]