Executive Guide to Business Requirements

Requirements quality is tangible. It is possible to look at the specific characteristics of requirements documentation and determine if it is sufficiently clear, accurate and complete to lead to a successful project. Since flawed requirements trigger about 70% of all project failures,1 this paper will present some hard and fast rules for looking at requirements documents, in any format, and being able to determine if they are reasonably well constructed. It will outline the key points to look for in a requirements document, and why this can save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Finally, it will offer five straightforward questions to address when evaluating requirements quality. The paper is not intended to be a full audit of requirements, but rather act as a guide and checklist for evaluation.