IT Requirements Management

Balancing Needs and Expectations

Agenda

• IT requirements issues

• What does it mean to manage requirements

• Balancing need and expectation

• Trends in requirements management

• Risks of poor requirements management Benefits of good requirements management

Impact of Requirements Defects

Requirements Issues

• 40% of software project errors are caused by requirements errors

• 70% of project rework cost is attributable to requirements errors

• 50% of total project cost is attributable to rework

Requirements Issues

• What is requested is not always what is needed

• Requirements address symptoms, not problems

• Expectations don’t match requirements

• Conflicting voices giving requirements

• Designs and solutions are mixed with requirements

• Development work starts before requirements are baselined

• Baselined requirements will change

Requirements

• Requirements define the products or services that a project must deliver, and the standards for creating and validating those deliverables, in order to satisfy the terms of the project

• Requirements management is the process of defining, controlling, developing, validating, and verifying the completion of project requirements

What does it mean to manage requirements?What does it mean to manage requirements?

What does it mean to manage requirements?

• Initiation – Product description

• Planning – Project scope, schedule, cost, quality

• Execution – Gather, develop, validate

• Close-down - Verification

• Control – Change management, Quality Assurance

Initiation

• Dreams and visions are not requirements, but set the stage for the project product

• Initial product description and project charter present highest level requirements

• Contracts may include high level requirements - constraints

Planning

• Refine requirements– Decreasing levels of granularity

– Dependencies

• Project schedule includes time for requirements determination, evaluation, development, and validation

• Project budget includes costs to realize requirements

• Integration of scope, schedule, cost, and quality– Business trade-offs

– Technical trade-offs

Execute

• Conduct requirements gathering

• Conduct requirements evaluation

• Baseline requirements

• Develop product to meet requirements

• Validate the product against requirements

• Implement approved changes to requirements

Close-down

• Final check of traceability matrix– Nothing forgotten!

• Client verification

Change Management

• Accept change requests

• Perform impact analysis

• Conduct review process

• Follow action for approvals

• Follow action for rejections

• Establish new baseline for requirements

Control

• Establish validation techniques– Demonstration

– Test

– Inspections

• Establish review and approval process

• Establish standards and templates

Quality Assurance

Standards to Establish

• Techniques for collecting, prioritizing, documenting, tracing, testing, validating

• Tools for recording, tracing, and managing requirements

• Processes for change requests, reviews and approvals, requirements determination, requirements management, continuous improvement

• Deliverables / templates for requirements statement, approvals and verification sign-offs, change requests, traceability matrix

• Roles for requirements determiners, client subject matter experts, reviewers, testers, developers, technical consultants

• Training to ensure requirements determiners are proficient in techniques, project team proficient in processes

Balancing Need and Expectation

Need

• Perceived need

• Best solution

• Schedule need

• Financial need

• Prioritized need

• Dependencies

What will best address the client’s business problem

Expectation

• Efficient

• User Friendly

• Reliable

• Correct

• General Knowledge

How the client perceives the product

“That’s not what I meant!”

Manage All Requirements

• Business (Functional) Requirements– A function of the project product or service that directly

addresses a client’s business need

• Non Functional Requirements– A property the end product must satisfy

– Standards by which the product must be created

– Support structure that make the product possible

– Environment in which the product must exist

Business Requirements

• Information

• Timing of events

• Format and content of– Reports

– Web pages

– Transactions

• Calculations and Formulae

• Laws and Regulations

• Security

• Data validation

• Roles and Responsibilities

• Process flow

Non Functional Requirements

• Auditable

• Available

• Usable

• Legal

• Cultural

• Standards

• Robustness

• Responsibilities

• Disaster Recover

• Backup / Restore

• Conversion

• Data Integrity

• Deployment

• Documentation

• Support

• Environment

• Hardware

• Software

• Performance

• Capacity

• Security

• Training

• Scalability

• Interoperability

Non functional requirements are often overlook and under-planned

Characteristics of Good Requirements

• Appropriate

• Attainable

• Correct

• Complete

• Concise

• Unambiguous

• Consistent

• Testable

• Verifiable

• Modifiable

• Traceable

• Implementation Independent

Industry Trends

Trends

• Tools

• Agile methods

• Client participation

• Reusable requirements

• Requirements Engineering

• Defect collection

RM Tools

• Record requirements• Track dependencies among requirements• Trace dependencies to components and validations• Track status of requirements• Manage versions and changes to baselined requirements• Store requirement attributes• Control access to requirements data• Trigger communications (emails) to stakeholders

Agile Methodologies

• Alternative to strict processes• Dynamic requirements• Adaptable to changes in technical and business needs• Short term planning• Client participation• Focus on testing for verification• Quick ROI

Client Participation

• Keep the client involved throughout the project life cycle

• Reviews• Functional Testing• Issue Resolution• Status updates• Requirements clarification

Reusable Requirements

• Object or components from one project:• Available for use in another project

•Object Libraries• Converted for use in another project

SEI SW-CMM and CMMI Requirements Management

• Baseline requirements• Manage the requirements• Maintain consistency across

• Requirements• Plans• Products• Activities

SWEBOK – IEEE Computer Society

• Software requirements knowledge area for• Engineering process• Elicitation• Analysis• Specification• Validation• Management

Software Engineering Body of Knowledge

Requirements Engineering

• Supported as a specialization for requirements management

• Focused training• Improved quality and consistency in requirements

statements• Improved requirements management

• Efficiency of process• Metrics collection

Defect Collection

• Support importance of strong requirements management

• Demonstrate quality improvement in process and product as defects reduce over time

• Identify phases where process improvement is most needed

• Support Root Cause Analysis • Recognize severity levels in defects

Risks of poor requirements managementBenefits of good requirements management

Risks of Poor Requirements Management

• Inadequate statement of requirements– Non functional requirements omitted

– Unstated requirements

– Poorly stated requirements

– Misunderstood requirements

• Failure to consult the right people– End user

– Technical experts

– Business experts

Risks of Poor Requirements Management

• Lack of commitment– Review with client

– Review with developers

• Lack of client participation during development– Create what you think they want

• Uncontrolled changed requirements– No change management

– Scope creep

Risks of Poor Requirements Management

• Lack of requirements accountability– Failure to trace to completion

– Omitted requirements

– Imagined requirements (do work that was never asked for)

• Short-cut the requirements analysis phase– Anxious for return on investment

– Start work before know what to deliver

Benefits of Good Requirements Management

• Reduce rework on projects

• Reduce cancelled projects

• Increase client satisfaction