Ten Cosmic Truths About Software Requirements
These insights about requirements apply to nearly every software initiative. Ignore them at your peril.
I have worked in the domain of software requirements and business analysis for more than 35 years, as a practitioner, consultant, and trainer. Having worked with more than 100 organizations of all sizes and types, I’ve observed some facts about requirements that appear to be universally applicable. This article presents some of these timeless “cosmic truths” and their implications for practicing business analysts (BAs), product owners, and product managers.
Cosmic Truth #1: If you don’t get the requirements right, it doesn’t matter how well you execute the rest of the project.
Requirements serve as the foundation for all the project and product work that follows. By “requirements” I don’t mean some initial specification you come up with early in the project, but rather the full set of requirements knowledge that is developed incrementally during the course of the project.
The purpose of a software project is to build a product that provides value to some set of customers. Requirements development seeks to determine the mix of capabilities…
