Why do we do Requirements Management (RM)? If we look at what the analysts say it is because effective RM helps to maximize the likelihood that an application delivers the functionality that is desired.Whilst this is true and we are all aware that poor requirements lead to wrongly or mis-developed functionality - in today's current economic climate it is vital that not only do we look at the impact of poor RM on the end-user but also that we look at the financial impact this has on our operations.

According to Voke's recent BA Survey a software development project can cost anything between $1million and $20 million - and an average project will typically have the following profile:

• People per project - 75
• Project duration - 17.2 months
• Cost per project - $3.2 million

According to IAG Consulting, a leading Business Requirements Analysis Company this is fine if RM is properly implemented but if it is not then the likelihood is that a project will:

• Be more likely to deliver a marginal project or outright failure than a success
• Have 50% chance of being a run-away i.e. deliver <70% of the required functionality
• Take an extra 39% of the time to deliver
• Overspend by 49%

So based on an average project spend of $3 million and factoring in the estimated affect of poor RM an average project could end up costing as much as $5.87 million. Furthermore - if we estimate that this happens in 5 out of 10 major projects per year - that's an estimated cost of nearly $30 million - now who can afford to lose that???

In fact in an economy where every dollar counts it is vital that we do everything to make sure we maximise how we do business and whilst investment in downstream activities such as test and development is reasonably significant (whether this be tooling or purely level of man effort) - acting and investing in the test and development phases is to too late - if we want to make sure we produce the right applications without sacrificing our budgets the time has come to invest in effective Requirements Management!!

If we trawl the web we will see many articles on RM, dedicated organisations such as the International Institute for Business Analysts (IIBA), RM consultancies such as the Atlantic Systems Guild and many other sources of RM information. However, in reality few companies rarely invest the time and effort in the discipline. In fact a report by IAG Consulting found that whilst organizations recognize that requirements are important to project success, 68% did not take effective action on strategic projects to ensure the RM process was governed and ultimately successful.

So let's get this party started and let's invest in RM - let's not focus on what it costs us but what it can save us!!! Lets remember that it's not just about tools, but investing in best practices, its not just about innovative capturing of requirements - but back to basics - what do we need to do to make sure we have the right requirements both when they are under development and review by the BA and when they are picked up by other stakeholders in the SDLC. In my opinion the route to savings can be found by investing in the following key RM areas:

• Capturing requirements in one place and having a "single version of the truth"
• Collaborating on requirements to make sure the right thing is being captured
• Linking requirements to other development assets - tests, defects, code....
• Standardising requirements so that everyone works in a common way

Effective RM is a key way to help ensure that not only is the money we are investing in projects well spent but it is spent at the right point in the project lifecycle so that the end goal is not only achieved but is achieved without sacrificing our IT budgets!!

Thanks

Genefa

Upcoming blog topics:

• Requirements Definition and RM are the genres merging?
• Wikis for RM - can we have flexibility and structure?