Knowledge Sharing Pattern Language

Problem	Customer and the supplier not having common understanding of the requirements for the project.
Initial Context	A new project is planned or about to be started or a separate pre-study including requirements definition is about to start. A preliminary understanding of project objectives exist (Shared Understanding, KSP05).
Roles	A Project Manager or a Requirements Manager with the project team define requirements for the project together with the customer representatives.
Forces	Requirements defined and shared with the customer are the representation of the customer and other stakeholders' need. The set of defined requirements guide the implementation of a project and act as a "skeleton" for the project linking different phases and products together. Or, like Clements and Northrop (2002, p. 110) say: "Requirements Engineering is not just an upfront activity but rather has ramifications over the entire development and maintenance effort." In the establishment phase of a project the requirements for the project must be well established and shared between the customer and the supplier. Requirements are required also for other than pure software development projects. For example, integration projects have project requirements in addition to the requirements of the product to be integrated. Depending on the planned commercial model the definition of requirements can be general (detail definition to come later) or as detailed as possible.
Solution	A general (can be iterative/incremental) procedure for defining requirements for a project is the following. See also section Practices for references to different approaches. Identify Stakeholders. Define who benefits in a direct or indirect way from the system which is being developed or is affected some way from the system. Check if you can use already existing requirements (See: Not Wasted, KSP23) Ask for Requirements, Give Requirements, Gather Requirements. Collect requirements and document those with the source of the requirements. Analyze Requirements. Check for possible conflicts or missing requirement details. Update the requirements based on findings. Negotiate Conflict Resolution. Negotiate resolution to possible conflicts and collect possible missing details. Establish Requirements Specification. Document requirements as a requirements specification (document, database etc.). Check that an adequate detail level has been achieved. Define which requirements can not be made specific enough and have those as items in risk follow-up. Review and Agree. Review requirements with all relevant stakeholders and agree upon the baseline for requirements.
Resulting Context	Well (or adequately) defined requirements to be the basis of the project and change management in the project.
Instances	To be used always when defining requirements for a project. One potential pitfall is that the commitment will not be forthcoming from the customer. In practice, this would mean not having adequate shared understanding between the customer and the supplier. This could result in a project that is difficult to close.
Process Connection	Project Management - Project establishment.