Why Requirement Gathering Can Kill Your IT Project

Developing and implementing a new software application is a long and arduous process. Despite the belief that it is the building, implementation and testing period that consumes most of the time, the gathering of system requirements actually swallows up most of the time and budget allotted for the project. Recent research suggests that up to 80% of a project’s allotted time is spent gathering the requirements of a new system. Developers have done their part in reducing the time spent by implementing tools such as Rapid Application Development and automated testing tools and have become well acquainted with such processes as multi-site rollouts, software rollout and POS rollouts. But it is to no avail, as companies continuously face the challenge reducing their requirement gathering time.

Spending too much time on gathering requirements could ultimately kill your project. Recent research shows that of 8,500 projects conducted in the US, 31% were never completed. The factors contributing to these failures include lack of user input, incomplete and changing requirements and specs, and lack of executive support -- all of which occur in the requirement gathering phase. Following are five major causes for the difficulties in gathering system requirements.

Difficulties in Visualization
Rather than formulating overall requirements, business users are often asked to visualize all of the details they believe the system should have, and to then imagine how those requirements might coexist while also working with or replacing the current system. It is nearly impossible to organize and visualize such details, not to mention quite intimidating to the employees whose opinion is being sought, and who might not be comfortable with complicated projects like multi-site project management.

Difficulties in Gaining Access to People
IT projects are frequently treated as a second priority to all other duties that a business user might have. It is not uncommon that on top of a 10 hour work day, a business user must then go and contribute to the requirement gathering process. Business users become exhausted and frustrated by an additional commitment, often making themselves inaccessible. Thus it becomes difficult for IT to gather all of the information it needs to continue forward with a project. In such instances IT finds itself making decisions without the participation of the user.

Difficulties in Compromise
Because it is difficult to gain access to business users, IT makes many of the systems compromises alone. Thus business users are delivered a system which they say is not what they wanted.

Difficulties in Reaching Decisions
We are minimally trained in the art translating information from one source to another. As a result meeting discussions tend to move around in circles, move off on tangents, or worse lack a clear purpose of discussion. Add the complication of system development to the mix and you can find yourself going nowhere.

These factors can certainly be changed. With experiments and varying tactics being used in the requirement gathering process, some companies have been more successful in completing projects under time and under budget. These changes and advancements are discussed in my article Solutions for the Requirement Gathering Process.

BigWave can help you manage multi-site IT projects more efficiently so you can collaborate and communicate quickly and effectively both on and off site. With BigWave, project managers can focus on what they do best—managing projects.

Contact BigWave today to eliminate the chaos and streamline your multi-site project management.