Exploit The Real Requirements Life Cycle

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.