====== Requirements Gathering Best Practices for Software Development ======

It all starts with how best the requirements are gathered for a project that leads to project delivery on
time, accurate cost measurement of projects and defining near perfect milestones.

Query: We do requirement gathering on regular basis and it works. What’s wrong with that?
Answer: Yes, it works but irrespective of which requirement management model you choose like adding,
modifying, or removing requirements after the project launch it could be quite costly.

The best practices of requirements gathering will ensure that when changes as they occur, one will be
able to manage them aptly, without losing the focus on delivering the desired objectives efficiently.

Thus among the various factors, a successful Software development is directly dependent on the best
practices ensured on Requirements Gathering.

Query: What are the Practices we should incorporate then?

Answer: The requirements Gathering best practice involves:

 List out all stakeholders

 Elicit requirements
 Analyze each requirements and its related complexities
 Document requirements
 Build Requirement baselines
 Monitor/track requirements
 Manage and control changes to requirements
 Report requirements compliance

Step1: Talk, talk and talk:

Yes, eliciting requirements from multiple sources involving all the stakeholders including new and
experienced managers/users. While operational users give detailed insight on user interface and
systems performance capability, Managers are the one having the list of desired functionality. Do ensure
managers don’t conflict with their wish list.

Step2: Prioritizing and organizing requirements in Software Projects:

With using techniques like Interviews, Prototyping, Use Case Analysis, User Stories, Workshops and all of
these being iterative again one can clearly prioritize the requirements.

Ensuring we have analyzed all the aspects of requirements leads to deep understanding of the Project
thus enabling one defining the system which leads to managing the scope of the project and further
refining the system definition paves way for managing changing requirements 1.

Step3: Validation matters in requirement management:

With stakeholders and users to be in the sync one should always open for the review of final
requirements being gathered. Be open for explanations to stakeholders on interpreted requirements
and their priority.

As required include activity diagram, workflow models or flowcharts. To step further, Models validation
as defined within regulatory guidance could be prepared.

If possible either using tool or gathering of all the stakeholders who contributed in requirements could
be organized.

Step 4: Ensuring Change Impact Analysis: Requirements Traceability

With the team working under the project have clear understanding of the implications of a proposed
change thus always remain in the sight of Business requirements meeting client expectations. Tracing
requirements through the entire SDLC provides the ability of better software development.

Impact analysis in requirement management with or without tool help us identify requirements that
being gathered earlier either being adjusted, deleted or even added.

Query: Can all these steps done without a tool.

Answer: Yes, all these can be done without a tool but it would be very prone to error and time
consuming.

Query: Can Requirements Gathering Best Practices could be done with free tool.

Answer: Yes, it can be done with free tool but they have very limited features and not aligning with
other tools that you might be using in your software development. Requirement gathering and its
documentation is Life-line of successful project. It is recommended to try top 5/all the tools before you
select one.

Query: Does Kovair ensures best Practices of Requirements Gathering ?

Answer: Yes, Kovair is built with SPIG Definition in core, “Requirements are the basis for design and the
whole product development process.” It not only ensures near zero requirements defects it also reduce
development rework. Kovair requirement management also ensures fewer unnecessary features, Lower
enhancement costs, Faster development, Fewer miscommunications, Reduced scope creep, Reduced
project Chaos, More accurate system testing estimates and above all High customer and team members
satisfaction.

Query: What are the high points of Kovair for its recommendation as Requirements Management Tool.

Answer: Kovair, provides multiple mechanisms to gather Requirements and they include Direct Entry,
Email, Via Integration with other tools, From corporate website, Import from Word or Excel, Integration
with Outlook.

 Allows classification and prioritization of requirements

 Provides excel like batch update facility
 Allows stakeholders to do collaborative review over a web based platform
 Provides In-built diagramming capability allowing users to draw
 UML
 Mockups
 BPMN diagrams and many more
 Support for versioning – Creation, Viewing Differences, Merging
 Helps to understand the "Who, What, When and Why" of any changes
 Allows viewing of requirements using different simple and advanced level filters
 Allows tagging of requirements based on different attribute value
 Allows enterprise wide reuse of artifacts to reduce errors and re-work
 Allows to organize requirements in folders within the application
 Supports organization of requirements in groups based on attribute values
 Provides option to subscribe for items and get notified whenever any modification happens

More details could be checked at: https://www.kovair.com/alm-studio/requirements-management/

Query: Is Kovair available on trial basis?

Answer: KOVAIR is a commercial tool, however it is also available as a Trial version for a limited time.

Query: still have questions about gathering requirements? Leave a comment below or get in touch with
our consultants, we are always happy to help businesses reach maximum efficiency in requirements
management. Our consultations are free.
1 Managing change includes working with established baselines, dependencies and establishing traceability between requirements.

Kaushik Dey is BDM in Kovair and this article content are the part of questions he faced in his client
interactions in all over the world. All appropriate permissions taken from respective clients.