A Guide to Requirements Gathering

You and your team decide you’re going to purchase a treat to send to one of your team members for her birthday, and you’re in charge of picking it out.

You settled on a tin of gourmet cookies and made the purchase. But now, someone has mentioned that your team member doesn’t eat gluten. Sigh. You’re back to the drawing board. Next, you order a delicious, gluten-free chocolate cake. But then? You find out that your team member doesn’t like chocolate — she much prefers carrot cake.

Here we go again. You need to order yet another treat.

Getting frustrated (and stress-eating all of those extra treats)? We don’t blame you. This is one of many examples of when effective requirements gathering doesn’t take place.

What is requirements gathering in project management?

Requirements gathering is the process of determining what your projects need to achieve and what needs to be created to make that happen.

You’re probably familiar with the fact that everybody has their own common project assumptions about what a project should include. Through requirements gathering, you collect insights from a project’s stakeholders to get an adequate grasp on how a project should work — before you start the work.

Project requirements are generally split into two categories:

Business requirements: What the project should do. You’ll also hear these referred to as “functional requirements.”
Technical requirements: How your project will fulfill business requirements. You’ll also hear these referred to as “nonfunctional requirements.”

Let’s add some clarity with a work-related example. Imagine your team is responsible for building a new job application portal for your company. Through the requirements gathering process, you’d connect with different stakeholders — the leadership team, the human resources team, etc. — to understand everything your application portal should include:

Business requirement: Candidates can apply for positions directly through the portal.
Technical requirement: A confirmation email will be sent to the candidate immediately after an application has been received.

Think of requirements gathering as your chance to collect all the different pieces to include so that your finished project not only meets expectations but surpasses them.

Why is requirements gathering important?

Requirement gathering and analysis might sound like an unnecessary formality, especially when you and your team are eager to sink your teeth into the project.

However, getting a handle on a project’s requirements is a crucial step for several reasons. Here’s what can happen when you don’t take the time to understand them:

Projects fall short of expectations: If you don’t know what you’re working toward, it’s pretty hard to achieve it. 47% of unmet project goals tie back to poor requirements management.

Scope creep becomes a problem: When everybody is on the same page about requirements, you reduce the risk of project scope ballooning throughout the project process.
Rework leads to wasted time: Imagine that you were 75% of the way through your job portal project when suddenly it comes to light that the portal should also have the option to assign test projects to candidates. Now you need to go back, undo a lot of your hard work, and incorporate that important feature. Had you known that requirement upfront, you could’ve built it into your project plan and timeline.
Team members become frustrated: Confusion, irritation, and even resentment can run rampant on your team. People become increasingly discouraged when projects keep missing the mark due to poorly written and tracked requirements.

Combine all of these, and you have the most frightening risk of all: project failure. Poorly managed project requirements are one of the primary causes of project failure.

What is the requirements gathering process?

Gathering project requirements can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be overly complicated — especially if you break it down into three steps.

Step #1: Solicit requirements from stakeholders

Start by identifying the project’s stakeholders and understanding what they think the project needs to address or include.

For example, perhaps the leadership team thinks your job portal should include videos and information about your culture, and the human resources team wants to track every touchpoint with a candidate. These are all important things to take into consideration as you create your project plan.

This is one of the trickiest steps of the requirements gathering process, and it can sometimes feel like pulling teeth. However, there are many different tools you can use to collect this information in a targeted and helpful way, including:

User stories and understanding splitting user stories techniques
Brainstorming sessions
Process diagramming
Surveys
One-on-one meetings

Step #2: Documenting requirements

Once you’ve gathered your project requirements, you need to document them in a concise and well-organized document.

This document ensures accountability and gives everybody a single source of information about your project’s goals. Don’t worry — we’ll dig into what a project requirements document should look like a little later.

Step #3: Confirming understanding of requirements

Once your project requirements are documented, don’t assume that everybody has a shared understanding.

Instead, share those documented requirements with all of the project's stakeholders to ensure everybody is on the same page before the project begins. If anything was skipped or misunderstood, it’s better to know now.

What are the challenges of requirements gathering?

The formula for the requirements gathering process is fairly straightforward. However, many teams run into roadblocks when trying to understand a project’s requirements. These can include (but aren’t limited to):

Loss of focus on the project goal: Here’s where scope creep comes into play. It’s tempting for people to come up with all sorts of ideas and feature requests, so you need to be mindful of whether or not they contribute to your overarching project goal.
Unstructured collection approach: It’s smart to put together a documented approach for gathering requirements. This makes the process more manageable for you and more predictable for project stakeholders.
Changing circumstances: People change their minds. A feature that seemed non-negotiable at the beginning might not feel as pressing a little later. Plus, it’s not just people who are fickle — circumstances are too. For example, maybe your team was working in-office when you started the job portal. Now that remote work is the norm, your portal might need different functionality.

The requirements gathering process isn’t without its hiccups, but it’s still well worth your time and effort to ensure you deliver successful projects.

Are there best practices for requirement gathering techniques?

Let’s talk about the bulk of the process: actually gathering the requirements. As we mentioned in the previous section, this can feel challenging.

Fortunately, there are a few tips you can put into play to collect and understand a project’s requirements in a way that’s both efficient and effective.

1. Reinforce the project goal

All of your project requirements have this in common: they’re in support of your broader project goal. So, make sure that you reiterate this objective every time you discuss requirements.

Sticking with our job application portal example, what’s your primary goal in launching that portal? Do you want to:

Improve your candidate experience?
Increase your application rate?
Streamline your internal hiring processes?

Knowing your core goal will give you the context you need to understand which requirements should take priority — and which may need to be postponed.

2. Focus on the right stakeholders

You want to ensure you connect with enough people to have a well-rounded view of your project’s requirements. But opening it up to everybody can be both overwhelming and confusing.

When it comes to requirements gathering, stay focused on a project’s key stakeholders. Who are the people or teams who will be directly impacted by this project? Those are the people you should be talking to.

3. Leave enough time

Requirements gathering won't be a quick task, and it likely won't be a one-time event. Stakeholders will think of things they forgot to mention, and you’ll think of questions you forgot to ask.

For that reason, make sure you build in enough time for the requirements gathering process. That will give you the breathing room you need to do a thorough job, without feeling squeezed for time.

4. Summarize and confirm your understanding

Assumptions can be dangerous, especially when it comes to project requirements. You might think you know what a stakeholder or team is requesting, only to find out you were on the wrong path when you’ve already sunk hours into the project.

It never hurts to confirm your understanding. When somebody mentions a requirement, summarize what they’ve shared with you. This is an important element of active listening, which is helpful in a variety of contexts — including requirements gathering. This quick summary gives them the opportunity to confirm your direction or correct you before you’ve started.

Even if you do everything you can to gather requirements as accurately as possible, surprises and miscommunications can still happen. That’s why an Agile approach (or Agile requirements gathering) can be so helpful, as it gives you regular intervals to reassess and make any necessary adjustments.

5. Remember that requirements gathering is an iterative process

Even the most thorough requirements gathering process will miss something along the way, with stakeholders and team members often remembering needs later on down the line. Remember to build in time throughout your project lifecycle for ongoing requirements gathering and management. If using an Agile approach, you may start with a top-level understanding of requirements, preparing the top-priority requirements for Sprint 1, and leaving the rest in the backlog for the next release session. However you manage your project, don't be afraid to continually reassess and reconfirm requirements.

Are there requirement-gathering tools available?

From mind maps or process diagrams to surveys or user stories, there’s no shortage of tools you can use to gather better product requirements.

On the technology side, there’s also plenty of software that can take the pain and pressure out of collecting requirements. For example, a collaborative work management platform like Wrike will help you:

Establish your project framework
Set priorities for each requirement
Boost transparency throughout the project
Keep communication centralized

That means you’ll know exactly what’s required of a project and have the visibility you need to ensure you’re checking those boxes.

Ready to get a solid handle on requirements and push more winning projects across the finish line? Start your free trial of Wrike today.

Marketing 10 min read

The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Information Management

Smart business owners know how important a marketing information management strategy is to taking control of their research and reaching business success.

Collaboration 10 min read

The Ultimate Guide to Total Quality Management (TQM)

Your organization does good work. But, as a leader or a project manager, you feel like a lot of it rests on your shoulders. Up to this point, it’s been your responsibility to review everything carefully and make sure your company’s outputs meet your quality standards. It’s working, but you know there has to be a better way. What if you could set up a system and a culture where everybody is invested in quality? What if you could refine processes that lead your team to consistently and reliably deliver top-notch work? It’s possible, and it’s a concept called total quality management. What is total quality management (TQM)? To put it simply, total quality management (TQM) is a set of principles that helps organizations do their best work. It focuses on helping companies evaluate and refine their processes, with the ultimate goal of improving their outputs and delivering a high-quality customer experience. In many companies, managers and leaders accountable for the quality of work and the success of the organization. However, total quality management spreads the load more evenly. Since every employee is involved in delivering the work, they are also held accountable for its quality. What is the history of total quality management? Think total quality management is something new? Think again. This concept has some pretty strong historical roots. Quality control has been around for ages. However, a mathematician and statistician named W. Edwards Deming is seen as the pioneer of the concept of total quality management. He saw flaws in U.S. production, especially when it came to quality control. Deming thought it was odd that management controlled the production process, despite the fact the line workers were the ones who had boots on the ground — and, as a result, had far more insight into how an effective process should run. He lectured on this topic in Japan in the 1950s. Japan was receptive to the concept of total quality management and quickly began implementing it. Upon seeing the success of those efforts in Japan, total quality management spread across the rest of the world — eventually becoming commonplace in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. Why is total quality management important? Total quality management can feel like a difficult concept to wrap your arms around, and it’s tempting to write it off as another complex, academic subject that doesn’t have applications in the real world. But that’s not the case. Many successful companies — like Toyota, Xerox, and Motorola — implement total quality management. Why? Well, because it can lead to a number of undeniable benefits, including: Higher-quality products and services: This is the obvious one. When you intentionally and mindfully manage a process with quality in mind, you improve your outputs. That’s the biggest benefit of total quality management — your team delivers top-notch work. Improved customer experience: A focus on the customer is a core principle of total quality management (which we’ll dig into in detail later). Keeping an eye on the needs of the end customer means you offer a better experience, leading to more loyalty, a better reputation, and even increased sales. Greater efficiency: Total quality management also hinges on processes, and even more specifically, continuous process improvement. Regularly evaluating your organization’s workflows and identifying ways to refine and streamline them leads to greater efficiency and productivity. Boosted team morale: Employee involvement is another core piece of total quality management. Every single team member rallies around a shared goal and commits to achieving it. That level of togetherness can lead to positive team culture and better morale. See? Total quality management isn’t just a stuffy theory or a buzzword — it can have real, measurable, and important effects within your team and organization. Using collaborative work management software (like Wrike) can make the process easier and enable even greater productivity. More on that a little later! What are the total quality management principles? Total quality management is about improving quality across the organization. But, it’s not quite as simple as saying, “Alright, we’re going to do a better job.” Total quality management has a formal set of eight different principles it’s based on. Here’s a straightforward explanation of each of those concepts: 1. Customer-centered You can think your processes, products, and services are top-notch. But, your opinion means nothing if your customers aren’t satisfied and impressed with your offerings. Organizations that implement total quality management always have the end customer in mind. They know their customers are the ultimate judges of whether or not their organization is of superior quality, and they refine their processes and offerings in the interest of the customer. 2. Total employee involvement Remember when we mentioned that total quality management isn’t something handed down from on high? Rather, it involves every single member of the organization in achieving a goal and improving quality. This can mean several different things. First and foremost, companies need to provide clarity around their objectives. Secondly, they need to provide the training and resources employees need to do their work efficiently and effectively. Finally, a high degree of psychological safety means employees have the freedom to push themselves — without the fear of repercussions for failure. 3. Process-centered Companies that implement total quality management don’t take a willy nilly approach to their work. Instead, there are prescriptive sets of steps and workflows for getting work across the finish line. These processes not only help them deliver more consistent work, but they also make production far easier to plan and monitor. That’s not to say these processes are set in stone. They’re constantly evaluated and improved upon. 4. Integrated system Every company has various teams and departments responsible for different tasks. However, with a total quality management approach, these different groups can’t operate in their own universes. Total quality management emphasizes the importance of the links that connect these different departments and functions. To preserve and improve quality, an organization needs to work as a cohesive, integrated system — rather than a collection of various teams. This requires a high degree of transparency and an understanding of the processes and work of other departments. 5. Strategic and systematic approach Imagine that you wanted to drive to Niagara Falls. Would you set out without any directions? Probably not, because you have no idea how to get where you want to go. The same is true for an organization. Total quality management requires that a company creates a strategic plan. Even more than that, the strategic plan needs to emphasize the importance of quality and quality management. 6. Continual improvement Companies that are invested in total quality management aren’t content to stick with the status quo. They’re constantly looking at ways to be better. This means evaluating processes, products, services, customer experience, employee feedback, and more to identify areas where you could improve. When you spot them, you need to address them and monitor them to ensure those changes actually benefited your work. 7. Fact-based decision making There aren’t many gut decisions made by organizations that implement total quality management. That’s because this approach prioritizes making decisions based on facts and data. Companies need to gather, organize, and analyze data about their performance measurements and use that to make their decisions. Total quality management doesn’t rely on intuition or best guesses. 8. Communications It’s hard to overstate the importance of effective communication on a high-performing team — and that’s why it’s a core principle of total quality management too. There needs to be clear and frequent communication across the entire organization to keep every employee in the loop on changes, operations, strategies, processes, and more. There’s no such thing as over-communicating. How does Wrike help with total quality management? Think total quality management sounds like a lot? It can be. But, rest assured, it’s not something that will be implemented overnight. Even taking small steps in the right direction can help you and your team improve your processes and work quality. Need some help? Wrike can help you satisfy many of the core principles of total quality management for project management, including: Total employee involvement: With clear and automated task assignments, every employee knows what they’re responsible for. Process-centered: Templated workflows allow you to create a process and easily repeat it for similar projects. Integrated system: Wrike provides visibility into what every team is working on (and working toward). Continual improvement: Wrike’s project status report will show you how projects are progressing and make it easy to spot sticking points in your processes. Fact-based decision making: Wrike offers a number of other reports to give you data about how your team is performing so you can make strategic decisions. Communications: With the ability to leave comments, tag team members, attach files, and more, Wrike keeps all of your communication centralized in one place. With a total quality management system like Wrike in your corner, you can help your team deliver top-notch work — without any added stress or hassles. Ready to jump in? Start your free trial of Wrike now.

Project Management 5 min read

A Guide to Project Prioritization

Why is a project prioritization process so important to your teams’ success? Streamline your project management prioritization and increase efficiency with our guide.

For Teams

Use cases

Apps & Integrations

Explore Wrike

Learn and connect

Become Wrike Pro

What You Need To Know About Requirements Gathering

What is requirements gathering in project management?

Why is requirements gathering important?

What is the requirements gathering process?