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As you collect your requirements, the PMP Certification Exam will expect you to remember to document and organize them so that it’s easy to demonstrate when they are complete, as well as how they impact and interact with other requirements. Additionally, you want to think about how to manage and control your requirements.

Requirements documentation

Depending on the type and complexity of your project, your requirements documentation can be relatively simple or very complex. One way to keep requirements organized is to create a requirements register that documents all the requirements for the project. You can do this in a table or a spreadsheet for small projects. For large complex projects, software programs can help you organize, track, and manage requirements.

A simple requirements register should at least include the following:

  • Stakeholder name or position

  • Requirement description

  • Category or type of requirement

  • Priority

  • Acceptance criteria

How to write requirements

Writing good requirements can be challenging. Attributes of good requirements include the following:

  • Clear and unambiguous: You goal is one — and only one — way to interpret the requirement. Having a quantitative or measurable statement will help here.

  • Concise requirements: There is only one requirement in each statement.

  • Testable: You can prove a requirement has been met.

  • Consistent: Different requirements can’t conflict. For example, you can’t have a requirement that personal information is encrypted to protect privacy yet another requirement that a person’s e-mail address is available.

  • Complete: All known requirements are documented.

  • Accepted: Your stakeholders have signed off on the requirements.

How to categorize requirements

As you start to progressively elaborate your requirements, you want to categorize them to maintain visibility and control. Commonly used categories include

  • Product requirements

    • Technical

    • Performance

    • Size, weight, and appearance

    • Maintainability

    • Environmental and interface

    • Safety and security

    • Operability

  • Project requirements

    • Business requirements

    • Interface requirements

    • Training and documentation

    • Cost and schedule

Clearly, the nature of the product will determine your requirement categories. The PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition has additional examples that you should be familiar with as well.

It is very important in your job, and for the exam, that your stakeholders agree to the requirements. You may want to get sign-off or some other written form of agreement for the requirements.

Requirements traceability matrix

Because requirements drive scope, and because scope determines the schedule, cost, and everything else about the project, you should be able to tie your requirements to various aspects of the project. A requirements traceability matrix can help you do that. For complex projects, you will need software that manages all the requirements and relationships for you. For simpler projects, though, you can create a database or spreadsheet.

Here are some examples of what you’ll be tracing and tracking:

  • How your requirements trace to a deliverable

  • How your requirements trace to an objective

  • How detailed requirements relate to high-level requirements

  • How technical requirements relate to business requirements

  • Which verification and validation method will be used for a requirement

  • Which stakeholder provided the requirement

Having this information documented and easily accessible will simplify the process of analyzing the impact of changes and help you understand the relationships between requirements.

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