Beginners Guide: Understanding Project Requirements

Gathering Requirements and planning for a project is the most important task and decides the success or failure of a project. A survey from Rock Ford Consulting* tells that over inadequate definition of functional requirement gathering accounts for 60% of ERP implementation Failures.




Requirements are building blocks to the future phases of the projects, these are not just plain statements about what the application should do but also what its not expected to do. It is not just gathering sentences of each users expectations but collaboration and fitting the pieces like a jig saw puzzle to complete a picture.



During Requirement Gathering Techniques -

- Meet the users frequently

- Ask questions and get confirmation

- Documents should be maintained on daily basis

- The pieces that do not fit in should be given higher attention as they may lead to bigger problems in future.

- Be honest with the client about expectations and analysis

- If in doubt ask more questions



Critical Points to be understood in Oracle Application Project Requirement Gathering

1. Applications involved in the legacy system.

2. Functionality and distinction of process in each application.

3. Organization Structure – Usually HRMS Org Structure conflicts with Financial Structure if both the functional consultants do not sit together and formulate a common Org Structure to achieve the objectives of both.

4. Hierarchies – Organization and Position hierarchy are both important to be understood from security, approval and strategy formulation perspective.

5. Significance of each Data item in terms of reporting and user group requirements.

6. Processes needed and not needed in the system.

7. Organization Policies and alignment with the IT objectives

8. Integration with external applications and vendors.

9. Thorough analysis of the information provided.

10. Viability of custom solutions if offered.

11. User Accountability for data gathering and acceptance testing.

12. Documentation of the gathered facts and information.



*http://rockfordconsulting.com/the-12-cardinal-sins-of-erp-implementation.htm