As increasing numbers of businesses turn to the Cloud as well as traditional service providers to provide significant parts of their IT requirements, a strong requirements document is vital for a successful experience writes Wikibon community member Anca Vescan in a new paper on the Wikibon site. The requirements document has three critical roles: First, it describes the service that the customer needs. Second it contributes to the process of defining the criteria for selecting the provider. Third, it becomes part of the eventual contract for traditional outsourcing engagements, defining exactly what the service provider has contracted to do.

The document’s main role is to define the services and quality-of-service that the customer requires and what the customer will use the service for. In addition it facilitates communications between client and service provider. It also forms the framework to monitor and assess the service provided by the outsourcer and reduces the risk of misunderstandings by providing a clear, written definition of the services required.

While Vescan warns that no ready-to-use template for a successful requirements document exists, the writer provides a the next best thing – a section-level conceptual outline with notes on what each section should include.

Vescan defines nine major sections of a complete requirements document with notes on each section to provide general guidelines. This outline will help those charged with writing these documents create a structured, complete definition of the company’s requirements that will serve as the basic reference for both provider and consumer throughout the course of the eventual agreement. Users who follow this outline rigorously will create a strong basis that will greatly increase the changes for a successful outsourcing engagement.

Too often IT shops jump over the important initial step of defining the business needs that must be met, either when outsourcing or buying or building a new internal system, and move directly to the technology. Without a clear written definition of what the project needs to accomplish, miscommunications, project creep, and other fatal errors are much more likely to develop. A strong requirements document is vital for all steps of an outsourcing or, for that matter, internal development, engagement. First, because it is written down and reviewed by all parties concerned, it creates an agreement among all concerned, business and IT. If this document is then referred to constantly throughout the process, it will prevent the project from going off course and create a much greater chance that it will meet the needs of the business.

Second, it provides the criteria for selecting a service provider or, in the case of internal development, hardware and software vendors. In the latter case it also guides developers, decreasing the misunderstandings that often damage or destroy internal development projects.

Third, it provides the basis for QoS definitions and measurement throughout the engagement, which can go on for years. As personnel change both in the consumer organization and the service provider, it provides vital base information to new staff taking over vital functions.

Fourth, in the event of a dispute, it provides a precise, agreed to definition of the services to be provided and QoS requirements. Because it becomes part of the contract, it is the document that all parties in a dispute refer to and can eliminate the problems caused when different parties present different understandings of an agreement. Memory is not immutable. Written documents are.

As with all Wikibon research, this paper is available in its entirety on the public Wikibon www.wikibon.org Web site. IT professionals are invited to register for membership in the Wikibon community. This allows them to comment on research and publish their own Professional Alerts, tips, questions, and relevant white papers. It also subscribes them to invitations to the periodic Peer Incite meetings, at which their peers discuss the solutions they have found to real-world problems, and to the Peer Incite Newsletter, in which Wikibon and outside experts analyze aspects of the subjects discussed in these meetings.