Requirements Definition (RD), Requirement Management (RM), Requirements Visualization, Requirements Elicitation, Requirements Engineering, Requirements Analysis........the list is endless and there many ways by which we can define the process of defining and managing requirements throughout a product or applications lifecycle.

One of the terms gaining greater popularity in today's marketplace is Requirements Definition Management (RDM). Essentially RDM encapsulates all of the approaches outlined above and is a streamlined way of defining the process associated with requirements capture and management (see I can't even redefine RDM without repeating my words).  The foundations of RDM are based on 3 principles:

• - Collaborative Definition: multiple stakeholders working together to define requirements using a variety of different techniques from text to visualizations.
• - Continuous Management: tracking changes to requirements as they move throughout the SDLC
• - High Level Specifications: project managers should try and understand at least 70% of the requirements at a high level in order to be able to assess how the requirements will impact budget and time estimates.

Essentially, RDM like RD and RM as standalone disciplines before it is something we must be aware of, because the costs of not weaving effective RDM into our SDLC can be detrimental to our overall project and organizations finances. In some cases costs can double and delivery rate can overrun by 40%.

RDM like many other of the development trends currently driving our initiatives means that we are moving from a siloed model to a collaborative model - and this in itself provides many new challenges as we all well know.

To find out more about how to make RDM effective for you - HP has produced a Whitepaper called "Requirements Definition Management - How to make it work". If you are looking to meet business demands, reduce time, cost and frustration and build effective RDM processes into your next project take a look and let me know how it goes.

You can find the WhitePaper attached here...