Like human beings, requirements also have a life cycle. They take birth, they grow and

finally they may die as well. So it is worthwhile to understand different statuses

requirements may have. Here are the few that I have gathered in my requirements

engineering career:

1. Unstated / Latent - A need exists but it is not expressed

2. Stated - Stakeholder has expressed the need

3. Documented - Requirements have been documented

4. Elaborated - Requirement has been detailed out

5. Modeled - Has been expressed using modeling language

6. Verified - Requirement has been verified for quality

7. Agreed - Stakeholders agree to the verified requirement

8. Validated - Requirement is proved to be beneficial to the organization

9. Prioritized / Ranked - Requirement has been ranked for development

10. Developed / Procured - Requirement is developed

11. Tested - Requirement has been tested

12. Implemented - Requirements has been deployed in production

13. Retired - Requirement has been retired as it has expired its utility

14. Rejected - Requirements can also get rejected during the lifecycle if they are not

found useful to the organization or inherently incorrect.

Do let us know if you have come across other states which were useful in your project

context.