The Bottom Line: Better Requirements Add Business Value

Not every manager is convinced that his team needs to do a better job on requirements development and management, or that such an investment will pay off. Numerous industry studies, however, indicate that requirements issues are a pervasive cause of project distress.

The often-quoted CHAOS Reports from The Standish Group indicate that three of the biggest contributors to projects that fail or are “challenged” are lack of user input, incomplete requirements and specifications, and changing requirements and specifications.

This white paper describes the business value an organization can achieve from investing in developing better requirements for its software projects, as well as how to think about the return on investment from that effort.