Strategies For Effective Requirement Gathering In Engineering

I've spent over 4,000 hours in stakeholder requirement-gathering meetings! Save hours of your life by asking these questions: 1. What do they plan to use the data for? 1. What initiative are they working on? 2. How will this initiative impact the business? 3. Is this for reporting or optimizing existing workflows? Understanding the purpose of the data helps you define its impact. 2. How do they plan to use the data? Will they access it via SQL, BI tools, APIs, or another method? 1. Do they have a workflow to pull data from your dataset? 2. Do they just do a `SELECT *` from your dataset? 3. Do they perform further computations on your dataset? This determines the schema, partitions, and data accessibility needs. 3. Is this data already present in another report/UI? 1. Is this data already available in another location? 2. Do they have parts of this data (e.g., a few required columns) elsewhere? Ensuring you're not recreating work saves time and avoids redundancy. 4. How frequently do they need this data? 1. How frequently does the data actually need to be refreshed? 2. Can it be monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly? 3. Is the upstream data changing fast enough to justify the required latency? Understanding frequency helps you determine the pipeline schedule. 5. What are the key metrics they monitor in this dataset? 1. Define variance checks for these metrics. 2. Do these metrics need to be 100% accurate (e.g., revenue) or directionally correct (e.g., impressions)? 3. How do these metrics tie into company-level KPIs? Memorize average values for these metrics; they’re invaluable during debugging and discussions. 6. What will each row in the dataset represent? 1. What should each row represent in the dataset? 2. Ensure one consistent grain per dataset, as applicable. 7. How much historical data will they need? 1. Does the stakeholder need data for the last few years? 2. Is the historical data available somewhere? Ask these questions upfront, and you'll save countless hours while delivering exactly what stakeholders need. - Like this post? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and follow me for more actionable insights on data engineering and system design. #data #dataengineering #datastakeholder

As a data scientist, I often have 30 minute "requirement gathering sessions", where stakeholders will describe some data tool they want me to build. I think there's a Right Way and a Wrong Way to run these sessions.   The Wrong Way: 1️⃣ Stakeholders tell me what they want me to build. 2️⃣ I confirm that I can do it, possibly sharing some cool methods I plan to use. 3️⃣ I tell them I'll add it to the next sprint. 👆 Unclear if this tool is better than what they're currently doing or if it would actually be used. This could have been an email.   The Right Way: 1️⃣ Discuss their problem and how they're currently addressing it. 2️⃣ Have a convo about what they want me to build. I'll ask questions about scope, calculations, and its use, while thinking about how I'll code it up. 3️⃣ Go deeper, bringing up alternate approaches to the problem, potential reasons it will fail (not better than current methods, lack of access to certain data, not easy to use), and the expected value of this tool (weighting outcomes by likelihood). 4️⃣ The meeting is now ~25 mins old, and there are a few options for next steps:  • Tell them I can't build something more valuable than the status quo  • Refer them to someone else who can solve the problem better  • Say we should go forward with it and give an ETA for a V1. 👆 I'm confident that the tool will be much better than the current approach, I know how I'll build it, and I can prioritize it based on its value relative to effort. Or I'll have avoided adding another thing into the graveyard of dashboards/models/tables never to be seen or used again.   A bit of a take, so please let me know your style for running these critical sessions. 

Clear Vision, Clear Results Ever been part of a project where no one seemed to be on the same page? Vague requirements, stakeholders with conflicting priorities, and the team left guessing what they were supposed to build? It happens all too often, and it’s the number one reason tech projects fail. Effective requirements gathering is the bridge between chaos and clarity. It’s where you align everyone, uncover what’s needed, and set the foundation for success. Here’s how you can turn a chaotic project start into a streamlined path forward: 1. Involve the Right Stakeholders Early ↳ Identify who has a stake in the project’s success. ↳ Bring them in early to get their insights and needs. ↳ Avoid surprises down the line by ensuring alignment from the beginning. 2. Ask Questions that Matter ↳ What problem are we solving? ↳ Who will benefit from this solution? ↳ What are the must-haves vs. nice-to-haves? 3. Use Workshops to Build Consensus ↳ Facilitate collaborative sessions to uncover needs. ↳ Use whiteboards, sticky notes, or digital tools to capture ideas. ↳ Get everyone to agree on priorities and outcomes. 4. Document Requirements Clearly and Concisely ↳ Write requirements in plain language. ↳ Make sure they’re easy for everyone—tech and non-tech—to understand. ↳ Visuals like diagrams and user stories can help make requirements clearer. 5. Validate and Iterate ↳ Share the documented requirements back with stakeholders. ↳ Validate that nothing has been missed or misunderstood. ↳ Iterate until everyone is confident in the plan. According to PMI, poor requirements gathering leads to project failure 37% of the time. Getting this step right is the key to avoiding rework and delays. Effective requirements gathering isn’t just a box to check. It’s the foundation of every successful tech project. It’s how you ensure everyone’s rowing in the same direction from day one. How do you gather requirements effectively in your projects? Share your strategies below! 👇 Stuck in the chaos of vague requirements? I can help bring clarity. DM me, and let’s get your project on the path to success.

Poor Requirement Gathering—"We Thought We Knew What We Needed..." Yesterday, I started with the most common challenge of #ServiceNow implementation i.e. over-customization. Today, I will reflect on requirement gathering. ❌ The Problem: Many implementations fail because business needs are unclear, not well-documented, conflicting requirements, scope creep, client wants 'lift & shift' or does not understand that ServiceNow works differently, stakeholders are giving requirements that don't align with user needs, the right stakeholders are not involved in requirement gathering, time zone differences etc. Without proper requirement gathering, technical teams end up building solutions that don’t align with business objectives, leading to rework, delays, and wasted investment.   ✅ The Solution: 💡 Conduct Workshops – Involve all stakeholders (IT & Business) including user representation to map out actual pain points and expected outcomes. 💡 Use Agile & Design Thinking – Start with ServiceNow starter stories, process mapping, and iterative feedback before jumping into creating new user stories and configurations. 💡 Get a ServiceNow BPC on Board! – A ServiceNow BPC ensures that requirements translate into effective ServiceNow solutions by balancing capabilities with business needs. 💡Prioritize requirements as you align them with ServiceNow solutions and business goals. Sometimes, a requirement is high priority with high value but it has some dependent CMDB data for it to work. Example is the incident record producer that requires reference to CMDB data. 💡Get the right stakeholders into follow-up sessions after workshops.   🎯 The Top 5 Business Values Derived: 1️⃣ Reduced Rework & Faster Implementations to ensure solutions align with business goals from the beginning. 2️⃣ Higher User Satisfaction & Adoption Rates through early engagement with users & key stakeholders in the requirements. 3️⃣ Cost Savings on Unnecessary Features to avoid over-customization and ensure budget is spent on high-value ServiceNow capabilities. 4️⃣ Improved Business & IT Alignment to encourage cross-functional collaboration via communication and ensure the solutions deliver measurable business outcomes. 5️⃣ Scalable & Future-Proofed ServiceNow Platform to reduce the need for frequent system overhauls and ensure smooth integration with future digital transformation initiatives like AI. 💬 Have you experienced requirement gathering issues in your ServiceNow projects? Let’s discuss in the comments! 👇 🔗 Follow me for more ServiceNow insights and its best practices! #ServiceNow #ITSM #ITIL #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #JobInterviews #PersonalBranding #Productivity #Education #Management #DigitalMarketing #Future #Futurism #Careers #HumanResources #Technology #Marketing #VentureCapital #Branding #Personaldevelopment #Sustainability #SocialMedia #India #Investing #Markets #LeanStartups #AdvertisingAndMarketing #SocialEntrepreneurship #Investing #BusinessProcessImprovement