Requirements Development

We approach requirements development with a methodology that we have used successfully in the past.  In the simplest terms, our approach is: engage with and listen to the customer.  We begin all projects with experience, ideas, and templates.  We then use those to engage the program sponsors and other stakeholders.  As we move forward, we update and revise our templates as necessary.  At project completion, we deliver a document that meets the needs of the program sponsors, in sufficient quality, clarity and detail to permit prospective vendors to understand the requirement, submit a competitive bid, and build the system to specification upon award.

Although the types of requirements documents vary widely, we have observed that the best ones – including the ones that we create – share several traits in common, in that they all:

• Establish a common understanding of the purpose and objectives of the system
• Identify the user community of the system, and the authorized levels of access
• Describe the functionality of the system, with particular emphasis on inputs and outputs
• Quantify and capture standards imposed by external entities, such as Federal IT standards or parent agency policies
• Enable the sponsoring agency to make budget decisions with a high degree of confidence that the desired functionality can be obtained for the estimated costs
• Enable qualified vendors to build a system that meets the project sponsors’ needs, on-time and on-budget, with all the expected functionality