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According to META Group:

60% - 70% of IT project failures result from poor requirements gathering, analysis & management.

 
Our Own Experience indicates That:

A high degree of variability exists from group to group in most  organizations for writing quality requirements. 

A common language for writing requirements is often missing causing misunderstandings and many hours of rework and repair. 

Requirements process problems are often present but go unaddressed and significantly impact project delivery performance.

Standard work products are often not completely defined or understood throughout the development life cycle and contribute to rework and repair.

A standard Traceability Model is often missing or lacking making it difficult to trace requirements and analyze the impact of change.

Line of business and IT resources rarely train together on requirements engineering processes and practices.

Requirements process problems are often among  the root causes for poor adoption rates of installed toolsets.

 
 
 
 
 

 Requirements Engineering


Want to Significantly Improve Project Delivery Performance? 

Welcome to G. Shaw & Associates. We specialize in helping our clients implement consistent and repeatable requirements engineering processes, apply sound requirements definition and management practices and prepare for effective utilization of appropriate tools. As such, we're dedicated to delivering relevant information, practical services, and on-going support that will contribute to the success of our visitors and clients. 

We're a  hands-on, professional consulting practice focused on helping large and midsized businesses throughout New England improve their project delivery performance and produce immediate measurable results. 

We help IT and line of business personnel do a better job of requirements definition and management through training, coaching and process implementation. That's it. That's all we do. 

Requirements Engineering Activities Are 
Known Critical Success Factors

Performing requirements definition and management activities have become recognized as critical to the success of all project initiatives. Despite over 30 years of experience with these disciplines, we’re still not doing a very good job. According to studies in this area conducted by the Standish Group and feedback obtained from our own Requirements Definition Class participants, we still have significant opportunities for improvement. 

According to the Standish Group: 
 
  • A clear statement of requirements ranked # 3 behind user involvement and executive management support for reasons projects succeed 
  • Incomplete requirements and specifications ranked # 2 behind lack of user input that caused projects to be challenged while changing requirements and specifications ranked # 3 
  • Incomplete requirements and lack of user involvement ranked # 1 and # 2 respectively as to why projects are impaired and ultimately canceled. 

 Independent Feedback from G. Shaw & Associates:
 
Independent feedback obtained by GS&A from over 800 Requirements Definition Class participants starting in 2002 indicated that:
  • Only 5% - 10% of the project life cycle is being spent performing Requirements Definition activities.
    • When asked it this was enough time, 100% of the participants said “NO”.
  • Participants unamiously agree that they have significant problems with Requirements Elicitation
    • When asked what tasks caused the most difficulty, 97.6% of the participants replied: "...knowing what questions to ask".

Requirements definition and management activities are important because they have a direct relationship to project success - the delivery of increased value back to the business.
 
Ready to improve your project/product delivery capability by delivering more complete and higher quality requirements? Give us a call now or 
e-mail us for a free consultation.

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