Shared understanding of project requirements: the use of context diagram

Many projects lose focus and face trouble because the project is not delivering of what the customer required. It is common practice sometimes to rush into project execution with shallow understanding of project requirements. The customer may not have knowledge to fully explain the requirements and may agree with the project plan assuming the project manager had understood their requirement. But as project enters into scope validation, the customer face is shocked and disappointed because the deliverable did not meet their requirements or because the deliverable has less impact that they thought

In this writing we will understand a visualisation technique called context diagram that displays project requirements as interacting systems that work together and help customers see both the big picture and inner details

PMI PMBOK 6 defines context diagram as “Context diagrams visually depict the product scope by showing
a business system (process, equipment, computer system, etc.), and how people and other systems (actors) interact
with it”

Let us take an example of developing project scope and requirement of a telecommunication network. A customer wants 500Mbps internet connection to connect two sites of their business. The project manager after conducting requirements collection process came up with the following context diagram to display the overall project scope

The context diagram illustrates the system as the network infrastructure connecting the sites and its basic setup. The system is being interacted with inputs from configuration files, user settings and interfaces as well as testing. The interaction could be two-ways as when configuration has to be imported into the system and at the same time backup taken from the system (importing configuration is one requirement, and taking backup another requirement of the project)

To learn more about project management and practical project management, get a copy of our latest book from the link below

Jama, A. .A. (2022). Practical project management: With Microsoft project illustration. Somalia: Pure Training Centre. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QGVRKY3