Why Requirement Gathering Can Kill Your Project
Developing and implementing a new software application is a long and arduous process. Despite the belief that it is the building, implementation and testing period that consumes most of the time, the gathering of system requirements actually swallows up most of the time and budget allotted for the project. Recent research suggests that up to 80% of a project’s allotted time is spent gathering the requirements of a new system. Developers have done their part in reducing the time spent by implementing tools such as Rapid Application Development and automated testing tools and have become well acquainted with such processes as multi-site rollouts, software rollouts and POS rollouts. But it is to no avail, as companies continuously face the challenge reducing their requirement gathering time.
Spending too much time on gathering requirements could ultimately kill your project. Recent research shows that of 8,500 projects conducted in the US, 31% were never completed. The factors contributing to these failures include lack of user input, incomplete and changing requirements and specs, and lack of executive support — all of which occur in the requirement gathering phase. This three part series I will discuss five major causes for the difficulties in gathering system requirements.
Written by John Livermore - Multi-site Project Management
Email This Post