Difficulties with Requirements

Requirements definition is complicated when multiple, conflicting needs arise from a diverse group of users and customers. Software organizations typically aren't armed with tools and techniques for negotiating and prioritizing requirements issues. As a result, software releases get planned from a software-only perspective, and customers are frustrated when their requirements don't receive priority. On the other hand, software development teams can be faced with impossible delivery cycles when customer demands dictate releases without the software organization's input. Also, some requirements take precedence over others for architectural reasons, something that business people generally don't have the experience or knowledge to understand.

Another obstacle can be the lack of involvement and participation of the right people. Business people need the software, but often they don't invest the time to define their needs. Software people keep coming back to business people for clarification, but they may receive different requests from different users. Software project managers often complain—rightly so—that they can't get the customers to provide the right domain experts, or subject matter experts (SMEs), to specify the user requirements. Delivery dates are often mandated without prioritized requirements, or the software team makes its own choices on which requirements to deliver.