Requirements-led Project Management

Book excerpt: Requirements are a crucial ingredient of any successful project. This is true for any product--software, hardware, consumer appliance, or large-scale construction. You have to understand its requirements--what is needed and desired--if you are to build the right product. Most developers recognize the truth in this statement, even if they don't always live up to it. Far less obvious, however, is the contribution that the requirements activity makes to project management. Requirements, along with other outputs from the requirements activity, are potent project management tools. In "Requirements-Led Project Management, " Suzanne and James Robertson show how to use requirements to manage the development lifecycle. They show program managers, product and project managers, team leaders, and business analysts specifically how to: Use requirements as input to project planning and decision-makingDetermine whether to invest in a projectDeliver more appropriate products with a quick cycle timeMeasure and estimate the requirements effortDefine the most effective requirements process for a projectManage stakeholder involvement and expectationsSet requirements prioritiesManage requirements across multiple domains and technologiesUse requirements to communicate across business and technological boundaries In their previous book, "Mastering the Requirements Process, " the Robertsons defined Volere--their groundbreaking and now widely adopted requirements process. In this second book, they look at the outputs from the requirements process and demonstrate how you can take advantage of the all-important links between requirements and project success.