What is a Requirement?
A requirement is a clearly defined need or condition that must be met for a project, product, or solution to be considered complete and successful. Requirements may be functional (what a system or process must do), technical (how it must perform), or operational (how it will be used, maintained, or supported).
In a higher education context, requirements might come from students, faculty, staff, administrators, accrediting bodies, or external funders. They provide the foundation for your project’s scope, inform your deliverables, and serve as a reference point throughout the project lifecycle.
What are the benefits of defining requirements?
Taking time to clearly define your requirements has major benefits for planning, communication, and success:
- Clarity and Focus: Establishes a shared understanding of what needs to be achieved.
- Improved Planning: Helps build a realistic project schedule, budget, and resource management plan.
- Reduced Scope Creep: Anchors decision-making and helps assess new requests or changes.
- Better Testing and Validation: Gives you something concrete to measure progress and completion against.
- Stronger Stakeholder Alignment: Ensures that needs across different groups are heard, prioritized, and integrated from the start.
For example, if you’re developing a faculty data dashboard, requirements might include single sign-on access, real-time data updates, and the ability to export reports to PDF—all defined before development begins.
Where might you see requirements in higher education?
Requirements appear in nearly every project where you’re building, revising, or implementing something new. Examples include:
- Curriculum design, where learning outcomes, credit hour requirements, and assessment expectations must be defined.
- Technology projects, where system capabilities, integrations, and user access need to be specified.
- Policy development, where compliance, stakeholder input, and institutional context shape requirements.
- Space or facilities planning, where safety codes, accessibility, and usage needs determine design.
- Grant applications, where funding agencies often specify strict eligibility and performance requirements.
A step-by-step guide to defining requirements
- Start with your charter or initial proposal and ask what is the project trying to achieve? Who is it for?
- Use stakeholder identification and requirements gathering processes to ensure that needs are collected from all relevant groups.
- Group requirements and needs into categories such as functional, technical, regulatory, or operational. This will help with prioritization and validation.
- Use concise, specific language and include who made the request, the reason behind it, and any measurable criteria for success.
- Review the list of requirements with your team and sponsor to confirm alignment, resolve conflicts, and prioritize what’s essential versus optional.
- Requirements should inform your scope, guide development, and shape testing and evaluation. You can revisit them during your after-action review or lessons learned discussion.
Reflective questions
- How do you currently define and track requirements in your projects?
- Have you ever worked on a project where unclear requirements led to delays or rework?
- What’s one upcoming project where clearer requirements would improve planning or alignment?
- How can you better involve stakeholders in identifying and prioritizing requirements?
- How could documenting requirements help you reduce scope creep or improve collaboration?