Identifying Challenges in Requirements Engineering

In today's fast-paced business environment, efficiently processing requirements is critical for success in both New Product Development & Introduction (NPDI) and Request for Information, Proposal, and Quotation (RFx) processes. Understanding the challenges inherent in these processes is the first step toward mitigating risks and improving outcomes.

Let's take a brief look at a typical process for finding ideas and developing concepts as part of a New Product Development & Introduction (NPDI) process.

​The NPDI process starts with the collection of ideas and the creation of business requirements through the Product Management Team which are handed over to the responsible Product Manager. The Product Manager assigns the responsible Subject Matter Departments to the requirements and hands them over for valuation. The Subject Matter Experts of the responsible Departments valuate their requirements and handover requirements to their Suppliers according to the content of the requirements. After valuation the Product Management Team reviews and approves the results and asks for creation of the functional requirements. After review and approval the functional requirements are released.

What are the challenges and the resulting risks?

Potential Challenges:

• Increasing product complexity and shorter development phases.
• Incomplete, missing, and unclear requirements.
• Inadequate interdisciplinary evaluation of requirements.
• Incorrect assumptions about effort and costs.
• Incomplete involvement of internal/external stakeholders.
• Time-consuming internal and external communication.

Potential Risks:

• Delayed product launch on the market.
• Expectations for the new product are not met.
• New product is a flop.

Let’s now have a look at a typical Request for Quotation (RFQ) process for responding to Engineering-To-Order (ETO) heavy tenders.

The RFQ process starts with sending the RFQ from a customer to the Account Manager. The Account Manager hands the RFQ over to a Sales Project Manager. The Project Manager disassembles the requirements and assigns them to the responsible Subject Matter Departments for valuation. The Subject Matter Experts of the responsible Departments valuate their requirements and handover requirements to their Suppliers according to the content of the requirements. After valuation the Project Manager reviews and approves the results and hands them over to the Account Manager who now creates the final quote and sends it back to the customer.

What are the challenges and the resulting risks?

Potential Challenges:

• Too little time to submit bids.
• Too many media breaks during processing.
• Little IT support, Excel at most.
• Long waiting times due to sequential processing.
• Incorrect assignments of Subject Matter Experts, duplication of work.
• High research costs.
• Incorrect assumptions, incorrect prices.

Potential Risks:

• Poor quality offers.
• Deadlines cannot be met.
• Order is lost.

For both processes NPDI and RFx we can see similar challenges:

• Time shortage.
• Incorrect or incomplete information.
• Inefficient communication and collaboration.
• Lack of tool/process support.