BPM Library

The requirements gathering is a major part of the Business Analyst responsibilities.
As a first step of every project the requirements are crucial for the next phases of the project. They have to be complete and useful.

Here is a list of the characteristics of the requirements

• Cohesive - The requirement addresses one and only one thing.

• Complete - The requirement is fully stated in one place with no missing information.

• Consistent - The requirement does not contradict any other requirement and is fully consistent with all authoritative external documentation.

• Correct - The requirement meets all or part of a business need as authoritatively stated by stakeholders.

• Current - The requirement has not been made obsolete by the passage of time.

• Externally Observable - The requirement specifies a characteristic of the product that is externally observable or experienced by the user. "Requirements" that specify internal architecture, design, implementation, or testing decisions are properly constraints, and should be clearly articulated in the Constraints section of the Requirements document.

• Feasible - The requirement can be implemented within the constraints of the project.

• Unambiguous - The requirement is concisely stated without recourse to technical jargon, acronyms (unless defined elsewhere in the Requirements document), or other esoteric verbiage. It expresses objective facts, not subjective opinions. It is subject to one and only one interpretation. Vague subjects, adjectives, prepositions, verbs and subjective phrases are avoided. Negative statements and compound statements are prohibited.

• Mandatory - The requirement represents a stakeholder-defined characteristic the absence of which will result in a deficiency that cannot be ameliorated.

• Verifiable - The implementation of the requirement can be determined through one of four possible methods: inspection, analysis, demonstration, or test. The expected methods are usually test or demonstration. The inspection or analysis are done just in special cases.