4 Ways Requirements Management Can Improve Teamwork
The success of any development process hinges on teamwork.
And teamwork hinges on communication.
But, if you can’t coordinate communication between project management, development, sales, customers, and other stakeholders, the team can get out of sync quickly.
To keep them all swimming in the same direction, they need frequent updates on the status of requirements and where their teammates are with their assigned tasks.
A good place to start?
Your requirements management (RM) tool.
There are many benefits of requirements management on teamwork:
- Solve complex problems faster.
- Build the right product the first time.
- Consistently complete projects on time and within budget.
Learn about all of the benefits of requirements management. Read the white paper >
There are four main ways requirements management tools can improve communication and teamwork.
Back to top4 Benefits of Requirements Management for Teamwork
Centralized Requirements Allow Real-Time Sharing
An RM tools allows you to centralize requirements and break free of the single-owner constraints of documents and spreadsheets. They give you the flexibility to organize (and reorganize) the hierarchy of requirements just like a document, but everyone has constant access and multiple authors can work on requirements at the same time.
Requirements Can Be Reviewed by Everyone
The most expensive bugs are caused by bad requirements. With an RM tool, everyone can participate in reviews, allowing more voices to be heard. And reviews take less time, because you only have to review what’s changed. This makes it easy for an iterative, consensus-driven approach to requirements. By letting more of your team participate in requirement reviews, you end up with better requirements up front and fewer expensive bugs in the end.
Automation Aligns the Team
Another advantage RM tools have over documents and spreadsheets is that RM tools can automatically notify team members when they have been assigned a requirement to review or approve. Product owners and stakeholders can also be notified when approved requirements have been modified, helping make sure the team is implementing the correct features.
Track Email Conversations With the Associated Requirement
RM tools also eliminate the danger of the team missing a requirement change because they didn’t see an email. Email conversations are stored and tracked with the requirement from which they were sent — the original email and all the replies. You can see at a glance when a requirement change was requested and reasons for the change. You can also track when the requirement was approved, and by whom.
Back to topHow to Improve Requirements Management
Ditch the Documents
If you’re trying to manage requirements with documents and spreadsheets, you simply don’t have the right tools to help your team communicate effectively. A real-time, always-accessible tool will help you share requirements and track all changes and updates.
Unlike documents and spreadsheets, full-featured RM tools allow you to collaborate with multiple stakeholders — simultaneously capturing requirements, performing reviews, knowing what's approved, and, most importantly, being aware of changes.
Teamwork isn't the only benefit of requirements management.
Improving teamwork and communication aren’t the only reasons to move away from documents and spreadsheets and adopt a purpose-built RM tool.
For a complete look at the benefits of requirements management, read 10 Signs You’ve Outgrown Your Requirements Management Tool.
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