AI Snippet 26: Management: Elaborate DoR

Requirements management is crucial for ensuring all stakeholders involved in developing work products are aligned from the very beginning. That's why our CPRE Foundation Level handbook dedicates an entire chapter to requirements management. Requirements are like living organisms; they need proper preparation and nurturing before they can begin their journey through the development lifecycle. As described in the handbook, they need careful preparation through elicitation, initial documentation, and validation before they're ready for implementation.?

A crucial aspect of this preparation is knowing when a requirement is truly "ready" to be worked on. The ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2018 standard emphasizes the importance of proper requirements preparation and readiness assessment as part of the overall requirements management process. Teams need clear criteria for when requirements are sufficiently prepared, making a well-defined Definition of Ready (DoR) essential.?

Often, teams begin with minimal preparation criteria, using simple checklists before moving to more sophisticated tools like Jira and Confluence as projects grow more complex. As requirements become more numerous and interconnected, it can become challenging to determine when they are genuinely ready for implementation. A clear DoR helps maintain control and ensures that requirements are properly prepared before entering the development cycle - from initial documentation through stakeholder validation.?

A DoR serves as a quality gate that helps prevent half-baked requirements from entering the development process. It ensures that the team has all necessary information, context, and resources to begin work on implementing the requirement. This preparation helps prevent costly delays and rework that often occur when requirements aren't properly prepared before development begins.?

Identifying the DoR can be challenging, but large language models can assist you! Try a prompt like:??

You are an expert Requirements Engineer, Business Analyst and Agile Coach, very familiar with the knowledge of IREB, BABOK and the Scrum Guide. I want you to give me a general Definition of Ready for my team. Before you start, please ask me relevant questions about my team, like what work they do, on what technology and whatever else is important.?

By Michael Mey and the IREB AI Interest Group