Collecting requirements is a process that determines as well as documents and manages the

needs and requirements of the stakeholders to meet the objectives of the project managent tasks.
Stakeholders are people who have some form of interest in change, either they are target of the
change, managers or other interested parties.

The process of collecting requirements consists of several inputs required, tools and techniques
and output generated to be completed,

The document for collecting requirements contains details about the requirements that are needed
to satisfy not only the stakeholders but also the project itself. The success of the project is
heavily influenced by the stakeholders involvement, the requirement may include conditions and
skills that should qualify the needs of the project.

The following are challenges that are facing project managers in collecting requirement,

Unclear objectives, when the project goals are not well defined the stakeholders may not
know what exactly they want. It is normal for stakeholders to know that they have a problem or
opportunity to explore but with unwell defined objectives they may fail to link the project with
their problems. Therefore it is important for the project objectives to be clear to the managers as
well as stakeholders by starting with the project sections that the stakeholders are clearer about
and the manager should understand better their current situation.
 Poor participation of stakeholders, project manager should actively seek to engage and
listen to those affected by its operations and the stakeholder engagement should be frank, open
and honest dialogue, that requires establishment of trust and rapport. In some cases people might
be afraid of being pinned down for expressing their ideas. Active participation and
communication with stakeholder is the key for the success of this requirement. Therefore it
important to listen carefully and learning to speak stakeholders language. Sometimes in project
with some political values, each stakeholder may see the need of their individual opinions to be
taken into consideration.

Stakeholders have conflicting priorities, when a new product, result or services is created by
project managers it must adhere to the needs of different groups of stakeholders such as end
users and senior management. These groups might have different needs and priorities. In this
situation it is best approach is to design the authority in the organization who is in charge of
negotiating the conflicting matters and make the final decision.

Stakeholders having limited knowledge, this may arise when the knowledge of the
stakeholders is limited in certain technical areas, or have the experience with the technology that
worked well in the past project. In this situation they may not be able to clearly understand what
needs to be done.

Stakeholders may change their mind, changes happen, this can happen when the
requirements were not clearly understood or communicated initially or they evolved over the
course of the project, when they realize they didn’t understand their actual need . Stakeholder
may say one thing one day and different the next, so it is important to understand the fuller range
of stakeholders. Also the requirement may change due to, missed requirement, identified defects,
political issues, changes in market place.
 Control scope is a process of monitoring the status of the project scope including the
product scope, and manage changes to the scope baseline. This process allows the scope
baseline to be maintained throughout the project.

The process of collecting requirements consists of several inputs required, tools and techniques
and output generated to be completed

The following are challenges that are facing project managers in collecting requirement,

Poorly detailed Project Scope Statement, this is the document that describes external and
internal restrictions. It is a useful tool that outlines the deliverables and identify the constraints,
assumptions and key success factors. Therefore if the project scope is not accurately detailed it is
difficult to say what is in and out scope for the project to deliver.

Poorly controlled project by the project manager, this can be due to following reasons, lack
of skills, insufficient team work, lack of accountability, poorly defined goals, lack of
communication with the team and the stakeholders. These factors may shift the project goals
beyond the project scope. Strong, accountable and experienced project manager will have
enough skills to control well the project scope and avoid the scope creep.

Indecisive stakeholders, this can make the project scope to be difficult to control. The
stakeholders can be indecisive due to, under or over expressing their views, limited knowledge or
conflicting priorities. This indecisiveness usually translates itself into requirements and scope
changing. Also conflicting priorities will always lead to arguments regarding on what to be
delivered and when.
 Poor project management requirements, well documented requirements make it easier to
detect any deviation in the scope agreed for the project or product. Therefore if not clearly
documented it will be both ambiguous or open to interpretation.