I applaud the new Collect Requirements process in the Project Scope Management knowledge area of the PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition. Although eight tools and techniques were listed, I did not see practical tips to discern the advantages and disadvantages of each tool or technique. Such guidelines would have been useful for project managers when deciding which tool or technique to use. I am hoping to see it on the next edition.
Interviews—ideal if you have few stakeholders who are all located in one place; the disadvantage is it takes too much time to do
Focus groups, facilitated workshops, group creativity techniques and group decision making techniques—project managers should watch out for groupthink
Questionnaires and surveys—potential problems with low response rates
Existing stuff—valuable source of requirements; not even mentioned in the PMBOK Guide
What do you think? Please click on the comment link to share your thoughts.
Connect with Dr. John A. Estrella via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
John,
I have recently looked into more details into the PMBOK v3 vs v4 about Scope in general. There is obviously the addition of collect requirements but also some fundamental changes in the Define Scope process, indeed this process now focuses both on Product and Project requirements. This is a significant difference to me.
I have posted an article on my blog about this: http://www.pminfocus.com/story/ooopswe-forgot-product-requirements and this is also part of a LinkedIn discussion (link at the end of my blog).
One of the questions is about how far the Project manager should take responsibility in the process of documenting the PRODUCT requirements.
I came to the conclusion that the Project Manager is responsible for the quality of the product requirements documentation PROCESS but the Product Manager is ultimately responsible for the success of the Product itself (that is if the project has delivered the product as per specifications/budget/time).
Vincent,
Within the Planning Process Group, it would be too early to collect detailed requirements. If I am reading the PMBOK® Guide 4E correctly, I believe that the intention was to have “adequate” project and product requirements in order to define the scope and create the WBS. However, there are no Project Scope Management processes under the Executing Process Group. Hence, there is no opportunity to “refine” the requirements.
Realistically, using a phase-gate approach, the project manager must get an approval at the end of the Initiating Process Group (signed project charter) and also at the end of the Planning Process Group (signed project management plan) before moving on to the Executing Process Group. If the expectation was to have full-blown requirements documents during the Planning Process Group, the Collect Requirements process could take several months. If that is the case, the project charter must include the entire requirements management lifecycle.
John