Below are the Best Practices to following for Requirements Gathering. To see how we can help you with project management for your software and web development projects, go to Software Services.

1. Know your Audience.

2. Write a document detailing the vision and scope of the project based on the business objectives.

3. Initiate a common vocabulary that defines words unique to the project and/or work environment which are acceptable to the users and the developers. For larger
projects consider publishing a project glossary and a list of acronyms to facilitate
effective communication.

4. Explore the requirements through joint user and developer efforts. Focus on product benefits (necessary requirements), not features. Address the minimum and highest priority requirements needed to meet real user needs.

5. Detail the Success Criteria. Document the rationale for each requirement (why it is needed?).

6. Establish a mechanism to control changes to requirements and new requirements.

7. Prioritize the requirements to determine those that should be met in the first release of the product and those that can be addressed in later versions.

8. When the requirements are complex (and maybe even when they’re not), consider an incremental development approach. This shows the awareness that some requirements can’t be completely understood until users start using the system.

9. Include users in peer reviews for inspections of all requirements.

10. Use requirements gathering techniques that are known, familiar, and proven in the organization such as interviewing, prototyping, and story boards.

11. Include members on the project team who are subject matter experts.

12. Establish a continuous improvement, teamwork, and a quality ethic.

13. Involve users throughout the development effort.

14. Establish a "lead" user who can be the point of contact all material and questions funnel through.