What stops you delivering great products at pace-

Lack of requirements

Let’s take a look into the role of requirements and why it plays a vital part in any organisation to stay ahead in a competitive market.

How many times have you asked when a product will be delivered have you heard “We don’t know?” “It depends…”“We’re unsure.” ? Frustrating, right?

Not knowing when you’ll get something delivered on time, or, if at all, is one of the biggest factors we see in many organisations, and that’s why we want to talk about requirements.

Delivering products rapidly and predictably is a critical factor for success.. Whether it's a new software release, or a consumer product, it’s often the difference between gaining a competitive edge and falling behind. However, one of the most overlooked yet essential elements in ensuring timely delivery is the establishment of clear and well-defined requirements.

So, what are requirements?

Agile requirements are evolving, lightweight and centred on delivering customer value through continuous collaboration and communication.

Requirements are not fixed documents, but rather user stories or product backlogs that are prioritised and refined continuously.

They are there to guide development, but flexible enough to change as the team learns more about the product and customer needs.

5 questions to ask yourself to get the best of our your requirements

Do you understand what the customer is asking for?

1.

Do you get the requirements quick enough and is it clear?

2.

Do you release in a timely manner?

3.

4.

Do you have acceptance criteria’s?

5.

Are you delayed by waiting for all the requirements to be signed off?

Short Story

Growth explosion at a global medical company

Growth was exploding at this global medical company—teams multiplying, clients pouring in. Exciting? Sure!

But with growth comes chaos. So, they decided to call in the experts: Agility in Mind.

We didn’t just show up. We dug in, armed with Agile toolkits and battle-tested strategies, ready to turn their chaos into streamlined success.

What can be done to improve your requirements?

For starters, we believe in the phrase ‘back to basics’. If you have lost your way, the lines have become blurred, remember these three key steps to help you get back to basics with your development teams to improve your requirements.

1. Product Backlog

Is your backlog healthy?

Have you checked the quality of work on the backlog? is there too little or much on it? How out dated is the work?

2. Refinement Process

Do you have all the information?

How good is your refinement process? are the developers and Product Owners collaborating efficiently and effectively during product backlog refinement?

3. Sprint

How much work is being rolled over into the next sprint?

Did the work turn out to be much bigger than you planned? Did new scenarios emerge at last minute? Is there a done Increment to review at the end of the sprint? Do you have to rework your work?

Failing to get requirements right can have a detrimental impact on organisations causing technical debt, confusion, loss of money. At Agility in Mind, we offer support to organisations to get back on track and take the chaos away. There are multiple training programmes which can help you and your teams get back on track such as Behaviour Driven Development training or Test Driven Development training to help find a better way of agreeing requirements, avoid re-work, and start the path towards success.

For more insights on how to deliver great products at pace, check out our other blogs, or get in touch with us. We’d love to hear how we can help you deliver great products.

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Additional resources

Factsheet