Comments on: Dear Craig – Why Requirements Change

By: Dear Craig - Project Management Training — Project Shrink

Dear Craig - Project Management Training — Project Shrink — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:52:31 +0000

[...] Anil, S.Srinivasan [...] The Secret To Coping With Change: MIND + NETWORK 2 Ali Anani, Helen Dear Craig – Why Requirements Change 9 Ali Anani, Bas, Ali Anani, Bas, Craig, Craig [...] Go To The Spike And Become Adaptive 5 Ali [...]

By: Ali Anani

Ali Anani — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:08:12 +0000

Well, I may get drunk without drinking!!!!!!!

By: Bas

Bas — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:38:08 +0000

HAHAHAHA. I don’t drink beer hehehehe

By: Ali Anani

Ali Anani — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:17:10 +0000

Thanks for the cofusion_ is the man with the beer Bas? In this case I see a great example of metamorphism or transformation.

By: Bas

Bas — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:59:12 +0000

Craig: are you referring to your own gravatar picture with the beer or the cliche photo of a kangaroo on an posting that is aimed at an Australian ? Like them both though.

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:14:07 +0000

PS – nice photo Mr de Baar!

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:12:31 +0000

Herman,

I particularly liked your second point.

Not all analysts are comfortable with the greyness of immature requirements. How do you deal with that?

By: Herman Driessen

Herman Driessen — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:52:08 +0000

Thanks for bringing the topic up.
The challenge of changing requirements does not exist for a project that lasts half a day… For projects that will last 10 years (like a Spaceshuttle program)….
1. One reason why requirements change is, that the environment (the world around us) continuously changes. So, why, do we expect that requirements can be frozen?

2. I also believe that in the requirements phase analysts should put themselves in a position to conclude that the set of requirements given to them, may not be mature. In other words, based on the set of requirements analysts should say to their managers: do not start the project. For instance, because we miss requirements about “exstensions”, etc.

3. An attempt to provide assistance in the requirements phase is “Requirements Assistant”, see Website: http://www.requirementsassistant.nl

By: Ali Anani

Ali Anani — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:11:54 +0000

This is a fantastic and illuminating reading.
In addition to what Bas stated, I would like to add the following remarks:

“In multi-stakeholder environments (i.e. large organizations) there is rarely one clear voice singing the requirements tune.” This is consistent with the brain-opener book entitled ” The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, first published in 2004, by James Surowiecki. As we rely sometime on intuition, the sense of the crowd becomes important.

“The people you put into project management and requirements management roles don’t have the right skills and knowledge.” This is very wisely stated. People lack practical application of how to manage complexity. How to tune the findings of complexity into the diary of managers is still problematic. Most managers get scared of complexity and stick to their comfort zone. Avoidance will not solve any problem; yet many people continue doing that.

By: Lars

Lars — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:23:17 +0000

I agree with your three main reasons and I find that it is more important to focus on the process of change and handling this process than to try to avoid change (although it is also important to define the best possible requirements up front). To manage the change process effectively we need a great tool for managing requirements including input from users and others and the abilty to trace every change and every decision back to its origin. one such tool is available at http://www.requirementone.com for free as a web-based fully hosted solution.