I have gathered and documented thousands of requirements for hundreds of applications over
the years.  Good requirements are easily understood by the IT team and are testable.

I recently found a great post by David Shaffer called “It’s the Requirements fault! A Recipe for Requirement Clarity “.  He really provides a clear concise method for developing solid requirements.  Below are a list of questions from his article that I highly recommend any analyst consider when gathering and documenting requirements.

For each requirement you ask the following questions:

1. Is the requirement written in S-V-O format? (Subject-Verb-Object)
2. Is the requirement written in active voice using a strong auxiliary verb?
3. Does the requirement focus on the business need rather than a technical solution?
4. Is the requirement easy to understand by all audiences?
5. Is the requirement simple, short, and unambiguous?
6. Will an example improve the understanding of the requirement?
7. Will a visual figure or wireframe improve the understanding of the requirement?
8. Can the requirement be tested?
9. Does the requirement contradict any other requirement?
10. Does the requirement describe how it must be implemented (Ex: display in alphabetic order, ascending/descending order, required/optional field, alphanumeric, numeric, etc.)

Question

What are some questions you normally use when gathering requirements?