97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 4. Make Project Sponsors Write Their Own Requirements

PMP. Miyoko Takeya

PROJECT FAILURE IS NOT JUST A PROBLEM with American corporations. According to a survey conducted several years ago by one of Japan's leading information technology magazines, more than 75% of the projects that are undertaken by Japanese corporations are considered a failure when measured against the metrics of quality, cost, and delivery.

In Japan, as in most other nations, the top reason for failure in each metric is almost always the same: poor requirements definition. The companies that are most at risk are those with poor business analysis capabilities. When specifically reporting on technology projects, such as software development, success is categorized, euphemistically, as "improbable." This result shows how difficult it is to find, identify, and define true requirements for a software project.

Since it is so hard to do, many project owners—such as customers, project sponsors, or company executives—expect the project manager to define and refine the requirements for the software on her own. They do not provide much in the way of guidance or a clear definition of what they need. Since it is a software project, and they may not understand software development themselves, they assume that they don't have to define what they expect.

The software project manager usually does not have the authority or the time to find, select, and prioritize the project requirements on her own—especially since there may be several interest groups involved in the project that probably have conflicting ideas about what they envision the software will do upon completion.

It's up to the project manager to spend time with those who are funding the software project to help them define exactly what they want before the project starts. Is it more important that it is done quickly, with few bugs, or on as small a budget as possible? You can't have it all. What resources and skill sets are crucial to create the software they want? Are they making these resources available to the team?

How will the software be used to run the infrastructure or make money for the company? Are the time constraints realistic? Are they written into a customer contract, tied to an important holiday date, or part of an elaborate marketing plan?

Without serious, specific consideration of what is to be created on this project during the requirement definition phase, the success of the project is severely jeopardized. Remember, project owners need to convey what they want this software to do, not how the programmers will go about producing that result.

Convince the project owners that they must be involved in the process from start to finish. Solid requirements planning establishes a clear connection between the business case, project goals, and the project outcome. Otherwise, the project cannot produce the satisfactory result they are expecting.

A failed software project hurts the project owners most, since they have put up the money to fund the project and were expecting to use the software to earn back their investment.