When Good Software Projects Go Bad—And How to Fix Them
Ever been handed a set of software requirements that felt more like a rough sketch than a blueprint?
In government contracting, this is a common challenge. One team writes the requirements. Another builds the solution. And somewhere in between… things fall apart.
The gaps aren’t always obvious at the start. But once development begins, missing details surface—leading to costly rework, delays, and frustration on all sides.
So, how do you ensure success when you don’t control the requirements?
The development team must take ownership of the requirements process—even if another party is writing them.
One of the best ways to do this? Embed business analysts within the development team. Their job is to work closely with government stakeholders before coding starts—ensuring requirements are clear, complete, and truly actionable.
This isn’t about shifting blame—it’s about asking the right questions upfront to avoid late-stage surprises and deliver a solution that actually meets the mission’s needs.
For those working in federal IT and software development: How do you handle unclear or incomplete requirements? Drop your thoughts in the comments—I’d love to hear your approach!
#GovTech #SoftwareDevelopment #FederalIT #BusinessAnalysis #Modernization #DigitalTransformation #GovCon #AgileDevelopment #ITModernization
Mobile App Developer | React Native, SwiftUI, Flutter, iOS, Kotlin | Scalable & High-Performance Apps | 7+ Years Experience
4 周Great perspective
CTO
4 周Good Requirements is the foundation for mission critical success. However there will not be a ?? complete requirement. In Air Force world, we strive for complete and continuous requirements every day with ever evolving priorities and intricate dependencies within and outside organizations. Our approach - 1. A requirement comes from from top of Air Force leadership vetted through the chain and falls with Business Process Owner. 2. BPO then engage with Govt Product Owner. 3. When it comes to the development shop, we have 4-5 business analyst, who throughly review requirements and engages with BPO/Product Owner. 4. A requirement understanding comes through finally a campfire meeting. A scope creep can happen during customer testing, then the key to success is modify requirement and test from development with past requirements covered.
Talent Development Professional ☆ Agile Business Analyst
1 个月As a BA, the sooner I can engage with the product owner and all the artifacts, the better. Analysis is key to understanding and setting upfront expectations. When I find my groove at the onset everything seemingly falls into place. ????????
So true. Love the visual.
Project Manager | Software Engineer
1 个月How pertinent! Two thoughts - one a great tool, and one a great mindset. Establishing a definition of ready really helps with maintaining a base quality for your requirements and gives the team tangible metrics for deciding whether or not a requirement is actionable. This is supported by a team-wide mindset of anticipating needs/ risks, and quickly escalating to the whole team any concerns or questions around requirements. It's even better when the whole team understand the business processes/ case, and are able to also anticipate the needs of the customer.