A guide to asking the right questions in IT requirements gathering
Why the quality of a specification is decided in the first conversation, and the question patterns that separate a usable requirement from a wish.
Start with the outcome, not the feature. Ask what the user will be able to do afterwards that they cannot do today, and how they will know it worked.
Make the actors explicit. Every requirement has a who. If the answer is “the system”, keep asking until a person or an external system appears.
Ask for the exception before the happy path is finished. What happens when the payment fails, the file is too large or the approver is on leave decides most of the design.
Close with a confirmation in the stakeholder's own words. Reading the requirement back is where misunderstandings surface at zero cost.
This is the interview the assistant conducts: it asks these questions in order, confirms its understanding and only then writes the stories.
Requirement specification or user stories? Both, in that order
The two formats answer different questions. Teams that pick one usually end up rewriting it as the other.
A specification answers what the system must do and under which constraints. A user story answers who needs it and why, in a slice small enough to build and test.
Stories without a specification drift: acceptance criteria are invented sprint by sprint and the non-functional requirements vanish.
Specifications without stories stall: nobody can start until everything is written.
The practical answer is to capture the need once, validated with the stakeholder, and derive both from it. That is the order the assistant follows: validated requirement, then stories with acceptance criteria, then use cases and tests from the same source.
Five reasons IT projects fail and how to prevent them
Scope that was never agreed, stakeholders who were never available, estimates made before anyone knew what was being built.
Unclear requirements. Prevention: a written, validated specification before any estimate is given.
Scope creep. Prevention: every change traced back to a requirement, with its impact on stories and tests visible.
Stakeholder unavailability. Prevention: capture decisions asynchronously so the project is not blocked by a calendar.
Optimistic estimates. Prevention: estimate from use cases and test scope, not from a one-line idea.
Testing as an afterthought. Prevention: generate the test plan with the requirement, not after the build.
Avoiding scope creep: five strategies for project success
Scope creep is rarely malicious. It is what happens when the requirement lives in people's heads instead of a document everyone can see.
Write it down once, in one place, and make that place the reference for every discussion.
Attach acceptance criteria to every story so “done” is not negotiable later.
Separate the next release from the backlog explicitly, and keep both visible.
Make change visible: when a requirement changes, show which use cases, diagrams and tests change with it.
Review the full specification with the sponsor before development starts, not after.
