VP/CIO PROJECT MANAGEMENT Guideline: Project Requirements Purpose: Developing project requirements is an essential element in the project management process. The project requirements are used as the basis for: creating a design/implementation; developing test plans; determining project completion and assessment of project success. Date Last Modified: October 31, 2011 Project Requirements: Process The process for developing the requirements definition has three stages: Preparation, Gathering Information, and Integration and Prioritizations. Preparing - Questions to ask yourself Is there a current system? Is there background data available? Is the project replacing an existing system? Is there historical data available? Can you identify the initial stakeholders? Have you decided the best way to approach each stakeholder and ask for their input and pointers? Gathering – There are three standard mechanisms for gathering information. They are use cases/scenarios, prototyping, and trolling/interviewing (focus groups, questionnaires, surveys). Questions to ask yourself How are you going to record the data gathering with each stakeholder? What type of meeting should you have? How are you confirming what you heard and widening your net? Do you need to iterate and gather more data/information? Integrating and Prioritizing – Taking the data you heard and refining the data to turn the information into a concise definition of the project. How are you confirming what you heard? VP/CIO PROJECT MANAGEMENT Guideline: Project Requirements Purpose: Developing project requirements is an essential element in the project management process. The project requirements are used as the basis for: creating a design/implementation; developing test plans; determining project completion and assessment of project success. Date Last Modified: October 31, 2011 Project Requirements: Questions to Consider* Stakeholders o How is the stakeholder impacted by the project? o What is the minimum the stakeholder would get out of the project? o What is the stakeholders wish list? Ask why? o Have the stakeholder talk about the problems not how to do it. Understand all the different types of stakeholders. (See the Glossary for a definition and examples of ‘stakeholder.’) Product/Service o Which stakeholders can set requirements for the project? o Do you have a complete definition of the end product/service functionality and capabilities? o Are you able to identify all users of the product/service? o Are you able to identify all stakeholders of the product/service? o Are you able to list what is NOT included in the project? o Are you able to identify what the stakeholder expects in status reports or project progress reports? o Is the project/service a replacement for an existing project/service? o If so what were the good and bad points of the previous product/services? o Is there any documentation currently available? Interfaces o If you think of the project/service as a “black box” what are the external faces of the product /service? o Do you know the function of the interfaces? Do you know who is responsible for the interface? o Are there internal or external interfaces or handoffs between groups? o Are there usability requirements? It can be useful to do some initial usability testing to refine usability requirements. (See the ITS Departmental Computing Support group for advice and services.) o Are there changes to existing systems (including infrastructure) necessary in order to implement the technology? o Is this project dependent on, or does it rely on any other projects or changes for support, testing, code changes, or other modifications or new implementation? VP/CIO PROJECT MANAGEMENT Guideline: Project Requirements Purpose: Developing project requirements is an essential element in the project management process. The project requirements are used as the basis for: creating a design/implementation; developing test plans; determining project completion and assessment of project success. Date Last Modified: October 31, 2011 o Is there third party connectivity (non-University Services connectivity) used in this project? Schedule/Budget Constraints o Do you know how much money or time is available to complete the project? o Is the deadline a “hard” deadline? o Are there roll-out requirements such as phases? o Is special expertise needed? Security/Access/Privacy o Do you know if there are security issues with the product? o Who can access the product/service and are there various levels of security? o Are there privacy issues with the data? o How does the data need to be protected? Is any of the data considered to be ‘sensitive’ data? o For more information about security/access/privacy issues, see the ‘Useful URLs’ in the IT Project Management Resources section. Support/Maintenance o Do you know the backup requirements for the project? o What will the recovery process be like? o Is the project an ongoing system that requires ongoing maintenance/support? Does it need support from the Help Desk? Training o What level of training is necessary for customers and end-users? o Are training materials and documentation required for customers and end-users to use the application or to use new technology? o How will the training be performed and who will prepare and deliver the materials? Policies/Law o Are you aware of policies that impact the project? o Are there any legal or regulatory compliance issues for this project? o Will General Counsel need to review any documents or contracts for your project? Vendors o Do you know if there are vendors involved in the project? o Are there contractual rules that must be followed? What are they? o Is vendor support necessary for the project after implementation? At what level? o Will any of the vendor-supported processes or functions be outsourced? VP/CIO PROJECT MANAGEMENT Guideline: Project Requirements Purpose: Developing project requirements is an essential element in the project management process. The project requirements are used as the basis for: creating a design/implementation; developing test plans; determining project completion and assessment of project success. Date Last Modified: October 31, 2011 o Does your project require a RFB, RFP or is there a contract in place? Resources o Space – Where will staff be located? Is there adequate meeting space? o Power – Is there adequate power for the hardware? Is the power “clean” o Cycles – Are there sufficient cycles to run the application? Does more need to be acquired? o Equipment – Does any equipment need to be acquired? o Media – What are the types of media being used? o Environmental – Are there any special environmental issues to be considered? o People – What are the staffing requirements for the project? When are they available? What happens if they are not available? o Storage – Is there adequate storage for the volume of data the project requires? o Products – Are the other products involved with the project? Quality Measurements o What are the criteria by which the product/service quality will be measured? o How will response time be measured? o Are there up time requirements? Change Management o How are you going to manage change? See the Change Management Guidelines. *The Project Management Community wishes to acknowledge that several of the questions above were inspired by the University of Minnesota’s Project Risk Assessment document.