Requirements serve as the backbone for the entire planning process. What constitutes a good requirement? How much time should be spent gathering requirements? What happens if requirements change? What is the value of a good requirement and what is the problem with a bad one? What is the different between "real" and "stated" requirements? Read the article entitled "Recommended Requirements Gathering Processes" by Ralph Young from the CrossTalk April 2002 issue in first forum post (pages 9-12). Discussion post on a separate word document 500 word

comment on 2 student posts separately 200 words each: reply on student#1: A good requirement should be defined based on needs versus want. It should be within certain parameters that should be based on necessity, attainability, unambiguous, completeness, traceability, conciseness and implementation free. Requirements determine what should be provided and not how it should be. Since every project is unique, the process of gathering information to define requirements can vary greatly. Defining requirements to build a new highway can take months to possibly years depending on how many phases of the requirements gathering process is done. A change in requirements can cause huge issues depending on when the change is discovered within the project timeline. For example, if a change to the requirements is discovered within the gathering information phase, then it would be part of the original timeline and probably will not delay the milestones much. The peer-review process and inspections are a phase to find if changes are necessary before its too late. If requirements are needed to be changed after a project implementation is started, it can have significant negative implications to budget, cost and timelines. One of the problems with requirements is that once they are built, it is very difficult to change them. If errors exist, they resist removal. The common types of requirements errors are incorrect assumptions, omitted requirements, inconsistent requirements and ambiguities. These issues can be mitigated by having the requirements peer reviewed. Peer reviews and inspections can reduce costs of the project by finding issues and errors before it becomes final. Real requirements are those that have been verified needs of users versus a stated requirement are provided by the customer in the beginning of the requirements defining process. student#2: Requirements serve as the backbone for the entire planning process. What constitutes a good requirement? How much time should be spent gathering requirements? What happens if requirements change? What is the value of a good requirement and what is the problem with a bad one? What is the different between "real" and "stated" requirements? A good requirement is one that is set to help the project succeed. The team must understand the stakeholders and customers expectation and requirements. To fully understand the requirements a Matrix with the problems and conditions should be developed as one of the first steps. All elements of the stake holders request are essential to the entire project. At the beginning of the project a good amount of time must be spent during the process of gathering information. Creating a team and brainstorming coming up with different ideas and collaborating among each other would be a great way to gather information and better understand the requirements and how they will be achieved. Setting deadlines allows the customer and stake holders to know when expected portions of the project will be done and give a sense of how much money it will require to finalize project. If a requirement changes the project manager and team must be willing to make the necessary adjustments. The change must be fully examined and understood why the change is happening. Another important factor is how will this change effect the budget, planned dates, and expectations. The value of a good requirements comes in when a team is trying to stay focus and on track of the set goals. Requirements are needed to succeed if there is not a plan with set expectations and deadlines this may cause the project to be hindered and loose a company a lot of money and worst of all not being able to complete the project due to funding. Real requirements are attainable while stated requirements can be anything that’s said that’s not measurable or isn’t being traced.