Approve project requirements

- How do we make the transition from gathering information to actually working on a project? By getting our requirements approved. Then we can create a plan and start allocating resources. There are really two steps in the approval process. First we should give our stakeholders a chance to review our documentation to ensure that their requirements were captured accurately. And then we should get management approval to lock down the requirements and move forward. Asking stakeholders to review your requirements sounds simple, but it can actually be really hard. Our stakeholders are busy, so they might think I already invested the time to explain the requirements to you. Why do I need to look at them again? But we know that requirements go through a whole process of refinement and prioritization. This review is our stakeholders' last best chance to understand the full requirements for the project and to provide any last input before it goes to management for approval. Once the stakeholder reviews are complete, it's time to deliver the finished requirements report. In some organizations, the approval is a stage gate. We need to submit our requirements for review, then get formal approval from management in order to pass through that gate and move on to the next stage of the project. Other organizations are more informal and our approval might be done via email or in a meeting with the project's sponsor. If you followed my process for developing your requirements, then the approval should be pretty simple. But sometimes the approvers can raise questions or concerns that we'll need to address. In that case, we just need to go back and repeat the steps in the requirements process until all of our approvers are in agreement. Getting your requirements approved is an important milestone for every project. It's a good opportunity to recognize our stakeholders and team members for their help, and it provides everyone with confidence that we're working towards the same set of goals.