Assumptions... This came up in a conversation today; Are programmers/developers stakeholders to the project? And of so, do they have a voice inthe requirements?
My view?
Yes developers are stakeholders. Their personal reputations and future job opportunities are related to the quality of the project. So yes, they should have a voice in requirements definition.
Even if they weren't stakeholders their opinion matters.
Some requirements managers take a view that the full requirements set should be deliverred to the solutions team (ie the developers, or a solution design team) and it's up to them to work out what can and can't be done within the constraints of the project.
That leads to two problems that I can think of off the top of my head;
- Developers can do anything given the time (they truly are magicians) - so the answer to "Can we do it?" is always yes and the cost aren't properly addressed, and
- Requirements prioritisation is not mapped to do-ability. So hard, high risk requirements are addressed first because the client wants them, even though they may derail the whole development process.
