What is the purpose of your project? What is required? These are some of the first questions you must ask, and they’re collected in a requirements gathering or requirements elicitation. It leads to the design and development of a successful project. Download ProjectManager’s free requirements gathering template to make sure your bases are covered.
Why You Need a Requirements Gathering Template
The requirements gathering template is the foundation on which your project stands. It collects what is required and provides a bridge of information between the user and the developer. The user communicates what they require and the developer anticipates them, as well, in order to make sure that everything that is required in the product is accounted for in the requirements gathering.
According to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge, a requirement is “a condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to solve a problem or achieve an objective; a condition or capacity that must be met or processed by a solution or solution component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification or other formally imposed documents; a documented representation of a condition or capability” as stated in the previous two definitions.
Therefore, the requirements gathered must be understood by the stakeholder or user. The requirements gathering is a way to get all those requirements in one place where they can then be agreed upon by the stakeholder/user and those who are tasked with executing the project.
This requirement gathering template is about business requirements, user requirements and system requirements. It’s a crucial document to complete before any project, especially any IT or software development. It includes all the features and functions of a product and is understandable for all involved, without any ambiguities. Therefore, it helps bring the project to a conclusion that is satisfactory for all parties.
This template is just the start of your project, one that will require a lot of management to control. The type of software you use is going to help, especially if that tool is one that integrates with other tools and has most of the features you’ll need in one place.
If you’re using a project management software like ProjectManager, you’ll be able to attach the requirements gathering template to your project as well as all its supporting documents and have them accessible to everyone on your team. You can even attach these documents directly to a task, so you can designate an assignee and due date, and then track the progress.
What’s Inside Our Requirements Gathering Template
The free requirements gathering template has a cover page that states the name of the project and features a box that tracks the versions and why changes were made (as there will always be changes generating this document).
Next, is a section reserved for the project plan, with a description of the project and its purpose, scope and a timeline, with milestones, goals, dependencies, etc.
A project description follows that offers space for stakeholders to capture their thoughts on the goals and objectives of the project are. In this section, you’ll also note the constraints and restrictions that come up and how to resolve them. Assumptions and dependencies are also listed.
The Requirements
The project requirements are broken into seven subsections: user requirements, functional requirements, system requirements and software interfaces, user interface requirements, workflow activities, change management and risk management.
High-level technical architecture is also captured and briefly sketched out without going into minutia. The maintenance and support needed throughout the project and afterward is noted, as well as the user testing and evaluation phase, which is broken down into objectives, artifacts, users and tasks.
There’s a section for sign-offs, once everyone is in agreement. There is also room for appendices, such as a list of reference documents used and their location and definitions of key terms used throughout.
How to Use Our Template
Our requirements gathering template is designed to be plug-and-play. All the fields are dynamic, so if you need to rename a section or heading to align with your organization’s nomenclature, you can just highlight and type it in.
There is also room in the boxes to add rows and columns as needed to address your list as long or as detailed as you’d like it.
Related Content on ProjectManager
ProjectManager is an award-winning project management software, but more on that in a moment. We’re also your one-stop-shop online for training videos, free project management templates and blog posts that speak to every aspect of running a project, regardless of industry.
Feel free to browse our site and sample from the hundreds of expert videos on a wide range of project management topics or read through the many blog posts we’ve shared. It’s all free and an excellent way to fill in the gaps in your knowledge.
But for right now, we’ve selected a few of the more recent pieces we’ve published that are related to the topic of requirements gathering, which we’ve listed below.
ProjectManager for Meeting Project Requirements
As noted above, a requirements gathering is only the starting gun that sets a project racing forward. To keep on track and cross the finish line a winner requires something more than just gathering and planning. It requires the right tools for the job.
ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software, which means our real-time dashboard is capturing progress as it’s updated by team members. That data is then automatically made into colorful and easy-to-read and share graphs and charts. ProjectManager helps with collaboration, and has online Gantt charts to keep everyone on schedule and Kanban boards for a visual workflow. See how it can help your next project by taking this free 30-day trial.