Want All Requirements

Business analysis is a fun field because you get to know all kinds of requirements. One of my favorite is “Want All Requirements”. So, what does this mean? This actually refer to the users who want requirements that can cover all kinds of scenarios in the world. In reality, most of scenarios are not applicable. Thus, the user cannot articulate how the requirements will be.

Abstract Art

I usually relate such requirements to abstract art. This is because the requirement is subjective to each user point of view. It is so abstract that you cannot really define. It is best to place the requirements in your backlog until you collate enough perspective to interpret with confidence. If you are using waterfall, this is best added to your “parking lot” and taken out of your critical path.

The Sad End

From my past experiences, implementation of these type of requirements always end up unused and unwanted. Majority of these requirements are “nice to have” and strongly insisted by non operational users who may have see such features in other products. Without any linkage to SOP (Standard Operational Procedures) or knowledge of end users, these requirements will meet a very sad ending.

A rule of thumb is to use SOP as a sanity check to ensure requirements are implemented as required. It is a total waste of time, cost and efforts to fulfill “Want All Requirements” knowing it’s sad ending.