How can you manage changing stakeholder requirements that affect your project quality?

1 Identify and prioritize your stakeholders

The first step is to identify who your stakeholders are and what their roles and responsibilities are in relation to your project. You can use a stakeholder analysis tool, such as a power-interest matrix, to classify your stakeholders based on their level of power and interest in your project. This will help you determine who are the key stakeholders that you need to engage and manage closely, and who are the less influential or interested stakeholders that you need to keep informed or satisfied. You can also prioritize your stakeholders based on their importance and urgency for your project, and allocate your resources and communication accordingly.

2 Establish and document the requirements

The next step is to establish and document the stakeholder requirements clearly and accurately. You can use various techniques, such as interviews, surveys, workshops, or prototyping, to elicit the stakeholder requirements and understand their needs and expectations. You should also verify and validate the requirements to ensure that they are feasible, complete, consistent, and aligned with the project scope and objectives. You should document the requirements in a formal document, such as a requirements specification, that defines the scope, quality, and acceptance criteria of your project deliverables. You should also get the approval and sign-off from the key stakeholders on the requirements document to avoid ambiguity and conflicts later.

3 Monitor and control the changes

The third step is to monitor and control the changes that may occur in the stakeholder requirements during the project execution. You should establish a change management process that defines how to identify, assess, approve, and implement the changes in a systematic and controlled way. You should also use a change control board, which is a group of authorized stakeholders who review and decide on the change requests, to ensure that the changes are justified and aligned with the project goals and benefits. You should also communicate the changes to all the relevant stakeholders and update the project documents, such as the requirements specification, the project plan, the quality plan, and the risk register, accordingly.

4 Manage the expectations and feedback

The fourth step is to manage the expectations and feedback of your stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. You should communicate regularly and effectively with your stakeholders, using appropriate methods and channels, to keep them informed of the project progress, issues, and achievements. You should also solicit and incorporate their feedback, using tools such as surveys, reviews, or testing, to ensure that your project deliverables meet their requirements and quality standards. You should also manage any gaps or discrepancies between the stakeholder expectations and the project reality, by negotiating, resolving, or escalating them as needed.

5 Evaluate and improve the quality

The final step is to evaluate and improve the quality of your project deliverables and processes. You should use quality management techniques, such as quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement, to ensure that your project meets the stakeholder requirements and the quality standards. You should also use quality metrics, such as customer satisfaction, defect rate, or rework, to measure and monitor the quality performance of your project. You should also conduct quality audits, inspections, or lessons learned sessions, to identify and correct any quality issues or gaps, and to implement any quality improvements or best practices for your current or future projects.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?