Agile Way of Requirements Management

Need for Agile Concepts

1. Shifting from the traditional way of software development
2. Avoid huge cost of poor or misplaced requirements
3. Stop creating artifacts that mean nothing to the project in reality
4. Make recommendations on solutions during requirements
5. Optimum Utilization of all available resources with iterative approach
6. Create requirements that are on priority first
7. Cost advantage balanced with technology availability
8.  Managing reasources spread across the globe
9.  Avoiding wastage of time, efforts and resources
10. Do only what is good enough!

Agile Principles in Requirements Management - as defined by Forrester Research

1. Be Lean

Add Value, Eliminate Waste, Fit-to-Purpose

2. Iterate

Breakdown Work products,  Progressive Definition, Just Enough!

3. Use Pictures

Less Text and more visualization, flow charts, wireframes and prototypes

4. Collaborate

Team Orientation, Business and IT coordination and Trust.

5.  Accept Change

Anticipate, Accept, Involve and  Proactive Management


Challenge is

Having the experience of having handled requirements that need huge documentation and process effort, and also having practised the Agile way of handling requirements in a more leaner, progressive development, interim user reviews, fixed and simple templates, change control and collobrate multi-cultural, multi-regional teams, I find doing the second one, makes not only better sense, but also a practical approach going forward.  But the challenge is to make this a practice and people at large accepting the framework.   This provokes a change in the Organizational DNA having the traditional ways of handling software delivery.