Documenting and Managing Requirements

The process of gathering and eliciting requirements begins with an understanding of how an organization operates. Most projects involve a small subset of the overall organization. Understanding the high-level process flow of a business highlights the 'big picture' and serves as a foundation for planning the requirements gathering and management efforts. In public sector operations, the primary mission is to serve the public. Whether that involves ensuring the health and safety of the public, enforcement of laws and regulations, providing support services, or some other mission, identifying the high-level purposes that drive the project environment ensures that the project outcomes are aligned with the organization's goals.
The construction of a context to identify the project's organizational impact involves several iterations. Each iteration explores different organizational aspects until those operations directly affected by the scope of the project are isolated and there is a clear understanding of the scope of the expected deliverable(s). Communicating with business users and eliciting the sources of this information is a key step in building your plan for requirements management.