Every project begins with requirements.
Although this step is very important, it is often neglected by companies because people see it as a “waste of time.” Both the developers and clients want to get right to writing the software code because then they feel that the project is progressing, but the result of poor requirements is having to make changes to the system later in the project and sometimes even starting the project all over. And this is a waste or precious time, money and resources.
Not defining the project’s requirements and business objectives is considered to be the number one reasons why projects fail.
Clearly,
we must learn the requirements before starting the project. In other words,
what does the client/customer require? That is the original question upon which
the rest of the project hinges. If you don’t know what the customer really
wants, then you’ll be managing the wrong project or, just as bad, managing the
right project in the wrong manner.
Many companies trust the client to know what he wants. Unfortunately, clients generally only know what they “think” they want and rarely work through to the end result. One of the most important aspects of project management is getting to the requirements first so that the rest of the project goes smoothly.
Careful planning, questioning and soliciting are critical to the requirements process, and that is the groundwork we’ll be laying in this first, critical section.
Projects aren’t just comprised of a beginning, a middle and an end but dozens, even hundreds, of working parts. The more “parts” you’re forced to work with, the more challenging the project can be. But if you can nail the requirements before even getting started on the project itself, the challenges you’ll face later will be both less problematic and less frequent.