The Importance of Requirement Management Process
During a symposium I attended last September I came across this interesting statistic from The Standish Group.
Chaos Report 2006 (The Standish Group):
Survey Results Resolution of Project
- Challenged – 49 % (either finished late or with cost overruns or scope changes)
- Succeeded – 35 %
- Failed – 16 % (terminated prematurely)
Leading Cause of Project Failure*
- Ineffective requirements management processes
- Inability to control scope creeps
- Lack of user input
- Incomplete requirements
Predictors of Project Success**
- Requirements quality
- Controlling scope creeps (change requests)
Powerful stuff. A total of 65% of all projects studied (5,000 project survey) either failed, went over budget, or finished late. The bottom line is that a good Requirement Management process is the prime indicator of a successful project.
By Requirement Management I mean the following:
- Pre project kickoff due diligence
- Requirement gathering and signoff process
- Requirement change process
- Change management process
I think it is very important for a PM (or any manager for that matter) to pay careful attention to this aspect of any project, and make sure you have a solid Requirement Management Process that is clear and understood by the client and by the team members.
** Source: Visitacion, M. (2003, May) A Practical Guide to Requirements Management. IBM Rational Seminar
* Source: The Chaos Report – The Standish Group, www.standishgroup.com