Trends Report

Exploit The Real Requirements Life Cycle

Think "Outside The Project" To Deliver Value From The Customer's Point Of View

October 7th, 2010
MG
Mary Gerush
With contributors:
Mike Gilpin , Adam Knoll

Summary

Recent attention to improving software quality through better requirements has led to a lot of debate about exactly what "requirements" are and how we can extract the most value from them. While many firms are working to improve requirements practices, they are focusing their efforts primarily within a project context. Yet our research, client interactions, and a recent discussion on The Forrester Community For Application Development & Delivery Professionals confirm the importance of a broader requirements life cycle. Requirements start before the project as an idea, opportunity, or need, and they live on after the project's completion as end users use — or fail to use — the software. Organizations that recognize this broader requirements life cycle use product-centric practices to gain deep insight into their software's end users — both internal and external. They use this insight to evolve their software to meet requirements more effectively with each release, thinking and acting "outside the project" to get the most value from software requirements.

Want to read the full report?

Contact us to become a client

This report is available for individual purchase ($1495).

Forrester helps business and technology leaders use customer obsession to accelerate growth. That means empowering you to put the customer at the center of everything you do: your leadership strategy, and operations. Becoming a customer-obsessed organization requires change — it requires being bold. We give business and technology leaders the confidence to put bold into action, shaping and guiding how to navigate today's unprecedented change in order to succeed.