Requirements Management

Requirements management is concerned with meeting the needs of end users through identifying and specifying what they need. Requirements may be focused on outcomes where the main concern is to describe what is wanted rather than how it should be delivered. Or the requirements may need to be specified in precise terms. Or requirements may be described in any way between these two extremes. The important issue is that those specifying the requirement have an adequate understanding of what the users need and how the market is likely to meet that need; they also need to be able to keep any changes to the requirement to an appropriate minimum and to document the requirement in such a way that the market will be able to understand what is required.

Requirements management aims to establish a common understanding between the customer and other stakeholders and the project team(s) that will be addressing the requirements at an early stage in the project life-cycle and maintain control by establishing suitable base-lines for both development and management use.

Requirements specification should exhibit the following characteristics:
· Lack of ambiguity - the requirements should be described in such a manner that it avoids multiple interpretations

· Completeness - it may be impossible to second-guess future requirements, but at least known requirements should be specified

· Consistency - there are problems in defining and realizing solutions that satisfy requirements if there are conflicting requirements.

· Traceability - the source of each requirement should be identified and should be traceable throughout the project life-cycle.