3.4 Conflict Identification and Negotiation
The requirements elicitor is also responsible
for identifying inconsistencies and unresolved
issues in the gathered requirements. There are two
primary sources of conflicts that must be dealt
with. First, stakeholders may have conflicting
ideas concerning the functionality of the new
system. These types of issues can be minimized
through clearly defining the scope of each
stakeholder group, and can be resolved through
identifying and negotiating solutions to conflicts
as they occur. Having an empowered project
manager or “champion” who can guide the project
through sometimes muddied waters can be very
beneficial for resolving these types of conflicting
needs. Some conflicts, such as those related to
non-functional requirements such as performance,
cost, and security, may not be unearthed until the
requirements analysis phase, when candidate
architectural solutions are considered. The
objective however is to emerge conflicts as early
as possible so that they can be resolved in a timely
manner and accommodated within the
requirements specification. In most projects,
where requirements are written textually rather
than formally, conflicts are identified through a
qualitative review of the requirements. It is not an
overstatement to point out that numerous projects
are cancelled simply because stakeholders cannot
reach agreement about what the system should do.