Runctional Requirements
One of the many projects I’ve led included a large team of about fifty primary stakeholders and hundreds of impacted users. One gentleman in particular had let me know up front that he wasn’t a supporter and would not comply with the changes we would be implementing. At the kick-off meeting, stakeholders came prepared with questions and had been provided the project plan in advance. My detractor was certainly prepared. When he indicated he had a question, I called on him.
“Whats a “runctional requirement?” He asked.
Confused I said I needed some context. He referenced the page and paragraph from my project plan where I had a typo for what was clearly intended to be “functional requirements.” His mocking tone was well known to his peers and one lady scoffed at him.
“Tim, can I get back to you on that? I promise a standards-compliant explanation by end of day.”
I then moved on and answered other questions without missing a beat. Shortly after the meeting, I sent a project review out, and appended the following:
“Runctional” Requirements
A member of a project team raised a question about the term “runctional requirements” as an item that was identified on the project schedule. The project manager and author of the document, Bryant Haines, stated this could not be a typo and promised to provide the definition of the term.
A quick Google search indicated 926 documented cases for the use of the word “runctional”, ranging from “runctional changes in the gastric mucosa” (ouch), to runctional skills and even runctional requirements (so there).
However, dictionary.com, withholding their support, does not list a definition for the word. So, for the purposes of the project (or perhaps just for making fun of Bryant), we will refer to runctional requirements as follows:
A. Requirements that did rank higher, but have now been ‘runk’ lower in priority, or
B. Conjunction of Running Functional requirements that we can’t quitget our hands on, or
C. Really Un-cool Nonsense Collection of Totally Idiotic and Obtuse, but Notionally Applicable and Legitimate requirements.
The project schedule was updated to exclude any runctional requirements, but the team was advised to provide immediate notice if they happened to identify a valid runctional requirement.
The team worked well together and even our favorite detractor largely refrained from ongoing debate for fear we would integrate his complaints into the plan.