To Go or Not to Go


The deliverables you produce during the blastoff provide the basis for assessing the viability of your project. When you take a hard look at what these deliverables are telling you, you can decide whether it makes good business sense to press the button and launch the requirements project.

Consider your deliverables:

Tockey, Steve. Return on Software: Maximizing the Return on Your Software Investment. Addison-Wesley, 2004.


  • Is the product goal clear and unambiguous? Or does it contain fudge words?

  • Is it measurable? That is, will it give a clear indication you have successfully completed the project?

  • Does it indicate a benefit to the organization?

  • Is it viable? Is it possible to achieve the objectives of the project within the allotted time and budget?

  • Have you reached agreement on the scope of the work?

  • Do some risks have a high probability of becoming problems?

  • Is the impact of these risks such that it makes the project unfeasible?

  • Is the cost reasonable given the product's benefit?

  • Are the stakeholders willing to be involved?

  • Do you have sufficient justification to invest in the project?

  • Do you have enough reasons not to invest in the project?

  • Is there any further investigation that you should do before launching the requirements project?

The point is to make an objective decision based on facts, not on boundless enthusiasm or giddy optimism. For some reason it is always very difficult to stop a project once it is under way and has consumed some resources. Ed Yourdon refers to these doomed ventures as "death march" projectsthey stagger along for years when most of the people involved know that they were never viable enough to have been started in the first place. A little consideration at this stage can prevent poor projects from being started and give good projects a flying start.




Mastering the Requirements Process
Mastering the Requirements Process (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0321419499
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 371

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