What is product requirements management?

Product Requirements Management (PRM) is the process of documenting, tracing, analyzing, agreeing on, prioritizing product requirements, controlling the changes, and communicating them to the relevant stakeholders. This process is necessary throughout new product development (NPD).

The term requirement in this context means the capabilities of the product that the stakeholders have agreed to include in the product’s development. Requirements can be termed as user stories, product goals, needs, functional requirements, features, and system requirements. Businesses typically employ software that includes PRM to ensure the process is streamlined and communicated properly throughout to all stakeholders.

Who Oversees Product Requirement Management?

The product manager is responsible for creating and defining product requirements. Others who can take up the responsibility are stakeholders such as customers, engineering team, sales, partners, support, and operations. Communication is essential to ensure the production team understands its responsibilities and tasks.

Objectives of Product Requirement Management

●       To create realistic expectations with the stakeholders involved in the product early.

●       To enable the cross-functional teams to prioritize high-value work and better use limited resources.

●       To enable the team to monitor the requirements as they make changes during the development process.

●       To help the development team reduce instances of mistakes in development and design, which can bring about unprecedented costs in re-development or cause a delay in launching the product.

What’s the use of Product Requirement Management for Organizations?

●       It enables the team to formulate accurate predictions on product business returns

●       It provides for precise timeline, resources, and budget estimations

●       It provides for effective product testing

●       It speeds up the overall product development

●       Helps in crafting better product design

●       It enables the team to make a well informed prioritization requirement

How to Gather Requirements

Gathering requirements refers to defining the necessary basic features of a product. It means understanding what you should build and why you are making it. The product manager conducts gathering requirements. The requirements are gathered from the stakeholders of the organization. These requirements should be communicated to the product team and understood by everyone.

Stages of Product Requirements Management

Although creating the product requirements varies between companies and teams, you must follow some steps regardless of the organization type or project scope.

●       Identifying the stakeholders

●       Gathering the requirements

●       Analyzing the requirements

●       Documenting and specifying the requirements

●       Agreeing and signing off on the agreed-upon requirements

●       Informing all the stakeholders about the requirements

●       Managing the changes of the requirements

In any organization, before the team embarks on a project, you should establish a requirements management plan that you can apply from the beginning of the project to ensure to produce a quality product.