On the importance of Requirements Management in Construction

Ask anyone in construction why projects run over budget, and you hear the same words: changes, delays, surprises. Behind many of them sits one quiet cause. At the start, nobody wrote down clearly enough what the building had to do.

Getting this right is the job of Requirements Management. The hard part is that the work comes early, and the reward comes late, often for someone else, so it is often performed as a tick-box exercise. The good news is that the value is real if requirements are done well: research on front end planning and systems engineering shows that better early definition lowers cost, rework and delays. As every project is different and the savings are hard to measure cleanly, exact numbers vary across projects. Still, the companies that do this well clearly win, with fewer surprises and less rework.

This interview looks at what good Requirements Management delivers, what makes it work on large projects, and what German firms can learn from projects that were done well.

My guest is Gijben Hornes, co-founder of BriefBuilder, a Rotterdam-based Requirements Management tool used on complex building and infrastructure projects such as hospitals, nuclear power plants, lab facilities, tunnels and airports.

I am Dr. Sabine Mavin. I lead digital projects for operational optimisation in construction and manufacturing, from the business case through processes and requirements to the right solution.

1. Lessons learned from reference projects

From your experience, can you tell us about one or more projects in which Requirements Management was done particularly well, one that readers can really learn from?

We are involved in many projects for many different clients but let me highlight two examples.

Lesson Learned 1: People and Processes as important as Tooling

The first is the Real Estate & Facilities department of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. They are a long-time customer that has used our software on multiple projects. One thing they have done particularly well is invest in implementation. They did not simply buy a requirements management tool, but spent time defining workflows, roles and guidelines for how they want to do requirements management. They also put significant effort into explaining the purpose and practical use of requirements management to both internal teams and external partners.

The lesson is that successful Requirements Management depends as much on people and processes than it does on tooling.

Practical examples to focus on:

Commissioning: To make engineering requirements successful, requirements must be supplemented with a verification plan. This plan describes when and how requirements must be tested, which demonstration documents are needed, and who is responsible for this test.

Change management: Perhaps a bit off-topic, but very important: well-structured and transparent change management of requirement changes according to a predefined procedure available to all project participants.

Lesson Learned 2. Requirements as structured data rather than text

In Germany, I would highlight LOGO InfraConsult, a consultancy specialized in airport projects such as the new terminals at Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich airports. What stands out is their data-driven approach. They treat requirements not as documents, but as structured project data linked to spaces and other project objects. In a project like the new terminal for Frankfurt Airport, this allows them to manage requirements for thousands of rooms while maintaining consistency and traceability.

The lesson is that requirements become far more powerful when they are managed as data rather than text.

A practical example that gives deeper insights into the benefits:

Capturing requirements: We notice that the problem is not a lack of good consultants. The problem lies in the fact that a predefined information structure for the brief is missing. This structure describes what information is needed, who is responsible for delivering these requirements, and when the requirements must be described.

Merging the requirements of all consultants does not necessarily constitute a good brief. Requirements from various specialists are often recorded in various documents (Word, Excel, etc.). Within these documents, requirements are missing, inconsistent or vaguely formulated. By bringing all requirements together in a well-structured digital and parametric format, checks and improvements can be made, and requirements can be linked to BIM models (solutions).

I would argue that both lessons – one about people and processes, the other about data and structure – are essential for successful Requirements Management.

2. The measurable value

What is the measurable value of structured requirements and high-quality requirements? To make this more concrete, could you share some real figures, what metrics were used and what was the improvement in percentage or euros?

That is an excellent question, but unfortunately not one that is easy to answer with precise figures.

We are typically involved in large and complex construction projects where many factors influence cost, quality and project outcomes. As a result, it is difficult to isolate the impact of Requirements Management and express it as a specific percentage improvement or cost saving.

Perhaps the best way to answer the question is to look at what happens when requirements are missing, unclear or not properly verified. Imagine a high-performance laboratory where, shortly before completion, it is discovered that the HVAC system does not achieve the required air cleanliness levels. The cost of redesign, reinstallation, retesting and project delays will be substantial. Even worse, if the issue is not detected, the laboratory may not be able to perform its intended function.

Hence, while it is difficult to express the value of Requirements Management in exact euros, the business case is clear.

Compared to the cost of correcting mistakes late in the construction or operational phase, investing time and effort in defining, communicating and verifying requirements is usually a very small investment.

3. Getting the incentives right on big projects

On large construction projects, the brief is written at the start, but the pay-off may come many years later, often on someone else’s budget. The people who do the hard work of writing requirements are usually not the ones who gain most from them. How do you make sure that those who put in the effort are properly incentivized?

I am not sure that people need to be incentivized in a special way. What they do need is sufficient time, management support and the right tools to do the job properly.

In my experience, the bigger challenge is that briefing and Requirements Management are often undervalued in project planning. Organizations are willing to spend years designing and constructing a building, but only a limited amount of time defining what that building should actually achieve.

It is also crucial to involve future users in the briefing process. By users, I do not just mean the people who will occupy the building, such as researchers in a laboratory or employees in an office. I also mean the people who will operate and maintain it: facility managers, cleaning staff, maintenance teams, waste management specialists and others.

These stakeholders are experts in their own right and have valuable experience with how buildings function in practice. Involving them early helps ensure that the completed building is not only technically compliant, but also usable, efficient and pleasant to operate.

When people see that their knowledge genuinely influences the outcome, motivation is usually not the problem.

4. The German market

Let us talk about transferring the lessons learned from successful projects to the German market, with its particular rules, contracts and working culture. What should a German decision-maker prioritise?

In my experience, the German market is quite mature when it comes to Requirements Management. The term Requirements Management may still be relatively new in the German construction sector, but the underlying concepts are well established. Germany has a long tradition of working with instruments such as the Bedarfsplan (project brief), Raumbuch (room book) and Lastenheft (requirements specification). There is also a solid foundation of standards, including DIN 18205 for project briefs and VDI 6028 for room books.

In other words, the idea of systematically defining and managing requirements is already well understood.

What I believe deserves more attention is the digitalisation of these processes. Even many large and professional clients still rely heavily on Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to manage requirements on major capital projects. That is somewhat surprising, especially when the same projects expect design teams to work in highly structured BIM environments.

For German decision-makers, the next step is therefore not necessarily to do more Requirements Management, but to manage requirements in a more digital, structured and data-driven way.

This improves the quality of the brief with better requirements and improved change management. It supports (partly automated) commissioning, improves efficiency and cooperation and reduces (failure) costs significantly.

Summary

The conversation with Gijben Hornes makes it clear that effective requirements management is where decisions regarding a structure’s cost, quality, and usability are made, often years before the consequences become visible. Two factors make the difference here: clear roles and processes on the one hand, and structured, verifiable requirements data (as opposed to loose text documents) on the other. For the German market, the real challenge lies not in doing *more* requirements management, but in consistently digitizing this practice.

For more information on the Requirements Management software BriefBuilder and their work, please visit https://www.briefbuilder.com/.

Where my work comes in: I assist clients and construction companies during the early stages of a project in clarifying requirements, data foundations, and processes (in particular requirements management processes) so that costly errors and rework can be avoided.

For more information on my work, please reach out to me.

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Kontaktieren Sie Dr. Sabine Mavin für eine individuelle Beratung und effiziente digitale Lösungen. Telefon: 0178 8485130.

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