1 Understand the strategy

The first step is to understand the business strategy of your organization or client. What are their vision, mission, objectives, and priorities? How do they measure their success and performance? What are their challenges and opportunities? You can use various tools and techniques to gather this information, such as interviews, surveys, workshops, SWOT analysis, or balanced scorecard.

2 Define the scope

The next step is to define the scope of your project or product. What are the high-level features and functions that you need to deliver? How do they align with the business strategy? How do they add value to the stakeholders, customers, and users? You can use various tools and techniques to define the scope, such as scope statements, use cases, user stories, or epics.

3 Elicit the requirements

The third step is to elicit the detailed requirements from the stakeholders, customers, and users. What are their needs, expectations, preferences, and pain points? How do they interact with the current or future system? What are the functional and non-functional requirements? You can use various tools and techniques to elicit the requirements, such as interviews, observations, prototyping, or brainstorming.

4 Analyze the requirements

The fourth step is to analyze the requirements and ensure that they are clear, complete, consistent, and feasible. You also need to prioritize the requirements based on their importance, urgency, and dependency. How do they support the business strategy? How do they fit into the scope? How do they affect the quality and cost of the solution? You can use various tools and techniques to analyze the requirements, such as requirements traceability matrix, MoSCoW method, or decision tables.

5 Validate the requirements

The fifth step is to validate the requirements and confirm that they meet the needs and goals of the stakeholders, customers, and users. You also need to verify that they comply with the standards, regulations, and policies of your organization or client. How do you ensure that the requirements are accurate, relevant, and acceptable? How do you manage the changes and feedback? You can use various tools and techniques to validate the requirements, such as reviews, inspections, testing, or demonstrations.

6 Communicate the requirements

The final step is to communicate the requirements to the developers, testers, and other project or product team members. You also need to document the requirements and maintain them throughout the lifecycle of the solution. How do you convey the requirements in a clear, concise, and consistent way? How do you use different formats and levels of detail for different audiences and purposes? You can use various tools and techniques to communicate the requirements, such as requirement specifications, models, diagrams, or user manuals.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?