People often fail in projects and product management because they have not learned how to link quality management with stakeholder management. When these two are not aligned, then we tend to build away from what satisfies the needs of the customers, and stakeholders in general.

Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfils requirements. (ISO 9000: 2015). The object could be a product, service, process, or outcome. The inherent characteristics are the properties built into the object. Requirements are what the customers, users, or regulators expect, require, or demand.

The category of people who make demands or have expectations concerning inherent characteristics of an object can be called stakeholders. A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organisation that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. While, ISO 9001:2015 reference manual may not have referred to its concerned population as stakeholders, its equivalent term, the “interested party”, is defined as “a person or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision or activity”, which is almost the same with the general standard definition of a stakeholder as adopted and popularized by the PMI.

For projects, products, and processes to bring value to the business, they must meet other stakeholder requirements. Failure to do this may result in the development of a product that misses the target in the market and destroys the value of the organisation. It is perfectly possible to build a product that is technically sophisticated, but useless to the customer. And the hall of failed products is littered with examples of failures that result when people focus more on technical features and not enough on the people who use those products. This is also responsible for a scenario where a product looks great but is rejected for failing to meet the requirements of regulators, resulting in scrapping of the product or sanctions if its outcomes become disastrous to the customers. For balance, and product-people alignment, it is important to investigate the stakeholder environment, and uncover the requirements necessary for the product to succeed.

If products will be successful, there are at least 8 stakeholders that we must consult, collecting and integrating their requirements into the development of our products.

1. Customer: The customer is the purchaser, or the user of the product. This definition fuses the role of the end-user with that of the purchaser of the product. The customer has a strong role to play in defining or determining what the product should do for them, and the requirements or features that it must have.
2. The Organisation – The performing organisation often would have standards, or requirements that must be met for the product/project to be considered satisfactory. I know of construction companies that never do surface wiring on their walls, and ensures that conduit wiring is always done. I once work with an operating lease company that never leased out second-handed vehicles. Its also the often the organisation that decides the quality standards, and how it should be applied in the organization’s processes, and workflows.
3. Industry – Industries have codes and standards by which its professionals adhere and subscribe to. The adherence to these rules, codes, and norms, and recommendations make the persons who subscribe to them “good and examplery professionals”, and they often help to ensure that the right quality or standard of work is done, and that there are no compromises, or short cuts to delivering the required outputs. A good example would be the Construction Industry using codes such as the British Construction Code, to recommend the ratio or mix of cement to (1 cement : 2 fine aggregate : 4 coarse aggregate) depending on the context and the result required.
4. Regulators – Agencies authorized by the government of a country or region to recommend, determine, and enforce rules and standards of performing a product, developing a product, or delivering a product or service. Regulators may adopt best practices from industries and enforce them as mandatory requirements, and they can also be extremely severe when these requirements are not adhered to. Failure to adhere to mandates can result in severe sanctions ranging from product suspension, to fines, jail terms and suspension and withdrawal of license, depending on the severity of the failure and criticality of its consequences. Industries with high impact of failures, such as finance, oil and gas, and aviation tend to see regulators take up a more active roles in the defining and enforcing mandates.
5. Suppliers – the individuals or group who provide us with resources, components, or inputs into our products, are often charged with the fiduciary responsibility of helping us to put their recommendations or inputs into the best and most valuable use. They receive payments for their input, resources or services, and are legally obligated to help us achieve the highest levels of value possible for the product. It is a good idea to seek out supplier knowledge and understanding to know how best to apply their inputs, and the context that would deliver the greatest value for our money. A supplier tasked with the responsibility of wiring a house should recommend the best quality of wires/cord that the owner can afford, and let the owner know the pros and cons of the purchase and installation process, and tactfully guide them towards the choice that would maximize long term value for them.
6. Competitors – The competitors generally do not owe you any obligations to make your business, product or project successful, but rather you owe it to yourself to improve your product, process and project, by being aware of what is happening in your industry environment, and using that information to drive improvements in your work systems. Expectedly, they would hardly provide this information to you, whether solicited or unsolicited. It behoves the business – the product owner, or project manager, to ensure that they follow and stay abreast of what is happening in their industry and competitive space, and using the information to adapt, iterate and continuously improve. This can be achieved using industry analysis, competitor analysis, and benchmarking to track and follow changes.
7. Anywhere – This may come as a surprise, but limiting your development ideas and intuition just to these six would severely limit your ability to innovate and deliver value. There are a million and one different opportunities to tap requirements that can deliver multiples of value, often in seemingly unrelated field. The ability to take something from one industry or field to another field, and apply it to get results is one of the defining traits or characteristics of innovation. We should go beyond the obvious, to listen to people across fields, read articles, materials and journals in fields or professions that are different from what we practice, and actively seek out new knowledge and new opportunities for application of the concept we learn. The roll-on deodorant is a good example of the application of a principle across field, with the adaptation of the tip of the ballpoint pen to the deodorant, so simple yet radically changing how people take care of themselves.

These 7 are the few sources of requirement I have learned and come across over the years as a consultant, teacher, project and product manager. What have you seen to be a source of great requirements that can improve or add something to the list? Share and lets keep the conversation going.