Communication is an essential part of requirements management, as it ensures that the
requirements are clear, consistent, and agreed upon by all the project stakeholders. Stakeholders are
the individuals or groups who have an interest or influence in the project, and who can provide input,
feedback, and approval for the requirements. Communication also helps to avoid surprises,
misunderstandings, and conflicts among the stakeholders, and to manage their expectations and
satisfaction. Communication should be timely, accurate, relevant, and transparent, and should follow
the communication plan and strategy defined in the requirements management plan12.
One of the aspects of communication is the status of the requirements, which indicates the progress
and completion of the requirements throughout the project life cycle. The status of the requirements
can be tracked and documented using a traceability matrix, which is a tool that links the
requirements to their sources and traces them throughout the project. The status of the
requirements can also be monitored and controlled using a change control process, which is a
process that evaluates, approves, and implements any changes to the requirements. The status of
the requirements can have different values, such as proposed, approved, implemented, verified,
deferred, deleted, or rejected12.
When the status of a requirement changes, it should be communicated to all the project
stakeholders, not just the source of the requirement or the project team. This is because the change
in the status of a requirement may have an impact on the scope, schedule, cost, quality, or risk of the
project, and may affect the interests or expectations of the stakeholders. Communicating the status
of the requirements to all the project stakeholders helps to keep them informed and engaged, and to
obtain their feedback and approval. It also helps to prevent surprises, such as the one experienced by
the major stakeholder in the question, who was unaware that a particular requirement was
deferred12.
Therefore, the best option is C. The status should have been communicated to all project
stakeholders. Option A is not the best option, because the status should have been communicated to
more than just the requirement’s source. Option B is not the best option, because the status should
have been communicated earlier than prior to project launch. Option D is not the best option,
because updating the status in the traceability matrix is not enough, as the stakeholders may not
have access to or awareness of the matrix.
