Requirements are a starting point, not a blueprint
A requirements document tells you what needs to happen. It rarely tells you, step by step, how that translates into screens, fields, and automated rules inside Odoo. That translation is where a practical approach matters.
Step 1: Group requirements by process, not by department
Requirements collected from interviews often come organized by who said them, not by what process they belong to. The first practical step is regrouping them around actual business processes — order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, hire-to-retire — so the workflow design has a coherent shape.
Step 2: Identify what Odoo already does
Before designing anything custom, it's worth mapping each requirement against Odoo's standard capabilities. A surprising number of "requirements" turn out to be standard behavior once the underlying need is understood, rather than the specific way someone described it.
Step 3: Design the workflow, not just the screens
A workflow is more than a sequence of forms. It includes who triggers each step, what state changes happen, what notifications fire, and what happens when something goes wrong — a rejected approval, a cancelled order. Designing this explicitly, even in a simple diagram, prevents ambiguity during configuration.
Step 4: Validate with the people who'll use it
Before finalizing the configuration, walking the proposed workflow past the people who will actually use it daily catches misunderstandings early. Their reaction to a mocked-up sequence is far more useful than another round of written requirements.
Configuration comes last, not first
By the time actual configuration begins, most of the important decisions have already been made. That's the point — configuration should be the execution of a design, not the process of discovering one.