Fundamental to any decision process is an understanding of goals and requirements. In many cases decisions are debated without a clear awareness and agreement of the underlying requirements. Additionally many assumptions and decisions are perceived to be requirements. I recall an engineer working for me on a large capital equipment project told me he couldn’t develop part of the machine because he couldn’t meet one particular requirement. When I told him it was not a requirement he replied, “in that case it’s easy.”
Requirements can be diagrammed in a requirements tree or matrix with certain fundamental or primary requirements leading logically to secondary requirements and decisions. All requirements are not created equal. A requirements tree helps prioritize requirements and aids when evaluating trade offs.
Requirements depend on perspective. At an executive level a planning process may lead to a decision to add product features or reduce product cost. This decision is then communicated to the product team as a requirement. In spite of the divine nature of management edicts it is still valuable to understand the decision process and priorities that led to the requirement.
