Your organization is depending on you to shape the future. How can you do that if you don’t even know where they want to go or how they expect to get there?

Have you ever read a recipe where the heating instructions and cooking temperatures were omitted? I recently tried to follow a beef stew recipe where the only guidance given was to ‘warm’ or ‘braise’ an item. I was at a bit of a loss given that this was the first recipe I have attempted since before COVID-19 was a thing. I had an unmet requirement and it almost derailed the whole project! According to the Project Management Institute and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) 6th edition, there are eight types of requirements. Understanding these types of requirements, how to gather and document them, and what happens when one is missed can have a significant impact on the success of your organization. After studying these for a moment, see if you can determine what type of requirement cooking temperatures are in a recipe.

Organizations may vary their terminology from one industry or region to another. For the purposes of this discussion business requirement will be used to describe anything which aligns to a strategic objective or stakeholder need. The actions needed to fulfill a business requirement are known as technical requirements here, though some organizations may refer to them as functional requirements. You will see why technical requirements is the preferred term as we define the requirement types. The PMBOK guide 5th edition defines eight discrete requirement types while the 6th edition smartly nests functional and nonfunctional requirements…