5.2 Collect Requirements

Find out, in detail, what stakeholders actually need from the project.

Planning / Scope · ← PMBOK reference · See it on the map

Why it matters

A requirement missed here surfaces later as a change request, and a late change almost always costs more than the same requirement caught at the start.

What done looks like

Requirements are documented, traced, and stakeholders agree they are complete.

First time tip

Interview stakeholders one at a time before you run a group workshop. A quiet voice gets heard alone that a loud group would talk over.

What you need (Inputs)

• Project Charter
• Scope Management Plan
• Requirements Management Plan
• Stakeholder Engagement Plan
• Stakeholder Register
• Assumption Log

How you do it (Tools & Techniques)

• Expert Judgment
• Data Gathering
• Benchmarking
• Focus Groups
• Data Analysis
• Decision Making
• Voting
• Autocratic Decision Making
• Multicriteria Decision Analysis
• Data Representation
• Interpersonal and Team Skills
• Context Diagram
• Prototypes

What you get (Outputs)

• Requirements Documentation
  How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: backlog items (driftless/models/agile.py:BacklogItem) — a backlog item's description IS its requirement statement; present once any item has one, healthy once every item does
• Requirements Traceability Matrix

Worked example

The project manager interviews the head librarian, a teen-program volunteer and an accessibility advocate separately, and learns the teen room needs power outlets at every table — a requirement none of them would have raised in a joint meeting.

Common pitfalls

• Only asking the loudest stakeholder and assuming their wish list speaks for everyone.
• Gathering requirements but never writing them down where they can be traced later.
• Closing requirements gathering before every named stakeholder has actually weighed in.

How driftless helps

• Benchmarking can be run here.
• Focus Groups can be run here.
• Voting can be run here.
• Autocratic Decision Making can be run here.
• Multicriteria Decision Analysis can be run here.
• Context Diagram can be run here.
• Prototypes can be run here.
• Requirements Documentation can be created in the wizard.
• Requirements Traceability Matrix can be created in the wizard.