Kicking off a software development project without clear requirements leads to project delays and cost overruns. This is why centralising requirements on one platform by utilising software is hugely beneficial, in order to improve productivity and project success.
The main cause of uncertainty in software development is utilising ineffective requirements management tools and practises. More precisely, the extensive use of general-purpose programmes like Microsoft Word and Excel and emails for documents inhibits collaboration and causes misunderstandings, barriers, and rework.
The bright side of this predicament is that, with better tools in place, such as a platform for managing requirements, risks, and tests that consolidates everything into a single system of record offers the single source of truth which many product development processes lack.
The Problem with Having Multiple Versions of Requirements
It is challenging for teams to coordinate their processes to gather, author, and finally move ahead with agreed-upon requirements when project activities are dispersed across several documents and communications channels. Instead, numerous inconsistent versions fill the void, causing outdated or inadequate requirements to be used by the development team. The issues which arise in those circumstances include:
- Key updates are manually distributed as projects progress in lengthy documents that may get lost in inboxes. This communication approach makes it difficult to manage requirements and changes to them, resulting in several versions of the truth and protracted review cycles.
- Given the speed and complexity of development, it might never be known whether a document is the most recent or whether all hazards are taken into account. Teams might form silos, and attempts to reconcile diverse papers might start too late or take too long to complete.
- Word and Excel require a lot of additional manual labour for this reason because they were not designed with requirements management in mind. For example, teams must develop their own ad-hoc procedures to follow while using documents and spreadsheets in accordance with industry norms.
How Centralisation of Requirements Benefits Product Development
Centralisation of requirements creates a single point of reference, allowing project contributors to trust that they are accessing and using the most up to date information relating to the project.
Some of the specific benefits include:
- Guided process: by following a structured format, your project will begin to take shape and include all the details you need to fully implement your project.
- Output reports: a system which generates a report laying out all of the information you need to jump into delivering your project ensures you can easily share documentation with all stakeholders. .
- Integration to project management tools: the ability for automatically generate tasks within a project management platform optimises communication and collaboration.
Conclusion
If project requirements are not clear, the result will be delays and cost overruns. Therefore, utilising software to centralise requirements on a single platform is advantageous for increasing productivity and project success. For more read ‘Why You Need to Use Software for Requirements Gathering and Management in 2023.’