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Last edited 05 Aug 2022

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Requirements management

1 What is requirements management?
2 Why is RM important?
3 Activities
4 Capturing requirements
5 Structuring requirements
6 Communicating requirements
7 Analysing requirements
8 Linking requirements to BIM models
9 Verifying compliance
10 Managing change
11 Standardising and re-using requirements
12 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] What is requirements management?

The concept of requirements management (RM) is relatively new to the construction industry, but it is well established in other engineering disciplines such as software development and aerospace engineering.

RM is the process of capturing, structuring, communicating, analysing and verifying the requirements for a facility, with the aim to ensure it will fulfil the needs of the stakeholders who will use, own, acquire and operate it.

RM overlaps with the concept of briefing, but there is a difference in scope. While briefing traditionally focuses on the early phases of a project (i.e. the briefing phase), RM is a continuous process in which requirements are defined, refined, updated and verified throughout all phases of a facility’s life cycle.

See the figure below (based on Kiviniemi, 2005) showing the difference between briefing (as a stage) and requirements management (as a continuous process).

Another defining aspect of RM is that it not only focuses on the client’s functional and spatial requirements—as briefing primarily does—but also on the technical and operational requirements concerning the building’s technical systems and elements, the delivery process, and the operation and maintenance of the facility. As such, requirements management is targeted at the architect, plus all the other actors involved, such as project managers, engineers, expert consultants, contractors, suppliers, asset managers and service providers.

Because of its broad scope, RM is often facilitated by database tools that allow project teams to manage a multitude of different requirements in a systematic way.

[edit] Why is RM important?

Requirements are the basis for any design or engineering project. They define what is expected, needed and required from the project in relation to important quality aspects such as usability, sustainability, safety and security, comfort, health, flexibility, efficiency and user experience.

In complex construction projects (e.g. hospitals, labs, infrastructure), there is a lot to gain from a systematic approach to requirements. Such projects typically have to comply with a multitude of requirements, which makes it difficult to maintain an overview. This introduces the risk of requirements being overlooked or ignored, or not properly updated and verified during the project. The potential consequences include design defects, scope creep, budget overruns and delivery delays due to rework.

RM aims to avoid such problems. The central idea is that clear and error-free requirements, combined with systematic compliance testing, helps to ensure that projects meet the needs of their stakeholders.

[edit] Activities

Effective RM consists of the following activities:

Capturing requirements: collecting and eliciting requirements from project stakeholders.
Structuring requirements: creating a clear and logically organised set of requirements.
Communicating requirements: communicating requirements with the design/delivery team.
Analysing requirements: reviewing the clarity and feasibility of requirements.
Verifying compliance: checking whether solutions are compliant with the defined requirements.
Linking requirements to BIM models: linking requirements to objects in 3D-design models.
Managing change: logging and evaluating changes and requests for change (RFCs).
Standardising and re-using requirements: creating standardised requirements for new projects.

Each of these activities is briefly explained below. The exact order and content of these activities depends on the complexity of the project and the chosen tender procedure.

[edit] Capturing requirements

The first step is to collect and elicit the needs and requirements of the project’s stakeholders (i.e. the construction client, facility managers, users and other interest groups). This can be done by means of workshops, interviews, surveys, the examination of reference projects and document analysis.

These activities are classic briefing activities, preferably conducted in the project’s briefing stage. But requirements can also be gathered in a more ‘agile’ way, on an as-needed basis, at later stages in the project.

Activities

Stakeholder mapping/identification.
Workshops/interviews with stakeholders.
Occupancy and evaluation studies of the ‘as is’ situation.
Analysis of reference projects.
Document analysis of internal or external standards.

[edit] Structuring requirements

In this step, the information that has been collected - which is often quite ‘fuzzy’ - is structured and refined. The goal is to produce a single, clear and well-organised set of requirements. Vague requirements are made specific. Inconsistencies are resolved. Missing requirements are added. Duplicate requirements are removed.

For simple projects, this exercise can be done in Excel or Word. For more complex projects, it will be useful to have a database tool that can handle large numbers of requirements.

Activities

Making breakdown structures of requested spaces and/or systems.
Making requirements ‘smart’ (i.e. adding explicit values and units of measurement).
Identifying and solving possible inconsistencies, removing duplicates.
Prioritising requirements (must-have vs. nice-to-have).
Reviewing the total set of requirements with stakeholders.

[edit] Communicating requirements

It is essential to communicate requirements to those who will be designing and building the project. This can be done by means of reports, diagrams and datasheets.

Different actors will be interested in different requirements; an architect, for example, may be primarily interested in spatial requirements, a mechanical engineer in the technical requirements.

When communicating requirements, it is crucial that they are up-to-date. Requirements should preferably be accessible via an online platform rather than hidden away in a plethora of emails and reports, so that everybody has access to the same set of up-to-date requirements.

Activities

Giving project actors access to requirements (via documents or an online model).
Updating requirements, managing versions and communicating differences between versions (also referred to as baselining).
Creating dedicated overviews or reports for different actors.

[edit] Analysing requirements

A requirements analysis is a formal review of the project’s requirements, typically made by the design/delivery team before the start of the design process or during the tender process. It means that all the disciplines involved go through the entire set of requirements and flag requirements that they regard as unclear or risky in terms of costs or feasibility. These outcomes are then fed back to the client as input for further improvement of the requirements.

Activities

Making a risk analysis of the requirements set.
Reviewing the clarity of requirements.
Identifying possible omissions or contradictory requirements.
Discussing possible improvements with the client.
Allocating requirements to the various project actors (contractor, architect, etc.).

[edit] Linking requirements to BIM models

If captured in the right format, requirements can then be linked to BIM models. The advantage of doing so is that requirements can be integrated into the design process. Requirements can be used as input for parametric or generative design processes or for the automated verification of design solutions. In particular, requirements concerning room quantities, room sizes and the placement of FF&E items in rooms can easily be checked.

Activities

Creating data exports of requirements that are ‘readable’ for BIM models.
Executing ‘clash controls’ between design solutions and requirements.
Discussing outcomes with the client.

[edit] Verifying compliance

Verification is the process of checking whether a design proposal or built solution is compliant with the defined requirements. Typically it is the design team and/or the contractor who is responsible for this.

Verification can be done using a simple compliance matrix, but it can also be a more comprehensive procedure based on specifications concerning verification methods (e.g. calculations, simulations, inspections), verification moments and the documentation that needs to be provided (e.g. test reports).

Activities

Developing a verification plan.
Assigning verifications to various disciplines/actors.
Carrying out verifications in different phases.
Monitoring progress and overall compliance rate per phase.
Identifying and solving compliance gaps.

[edit] Managing change

Ideally, requirements do not change during a project, but change cannot be avoided entirely. Changes may come from new insights, budget changes, feedback from contractors or regulatory changes. This need not be a problem as long as change happens in a controlled way.

Once requirements have been formally approved, changes should be made on the basis of formal requests for change (RFCs), which have to reviewed in terms of impact on costs, time and quality before they are implemented.

Activities

Setting up a change management procedure.
Logging RFCs.
Analysing/reviewing RFCs in terms of their impact on costs, time and quality.
Implementing RFCs if accepted.
Communicating changes to the stakeholders.

[edit] Standardising and re-using requirements

Having developed an effective set of requirements, it makes sense to standardise and reuse them. Large clients may, for example, develop requirements templates for specific room types (e.g. patient rooms or classrooms) or systems (e.g. access control systems). Standardisation will help to create consistency across projects and speed up the specification process.

To ensure that standardised requirements are relevant, it is critical to maintain, manage and improve them on the basis of project evaluations.

Activities

Developing requirement libraries/templates for common room types, systems or building types.
Evaluating the quality of requirements after each project (e.g. by looking at verification outcomes and the number of RFCs relating to a specific requirement).
Guiding project teams in the use of requirement libraries/templates in their projects.
Conducting post-occupancy evaluations of projects and incorporating the ‘lessons learnt’ into requirements for new projects.