Requirements Management
SUGSA August 2010
Mohamed Bray
The Presentation Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
2
Introduction
Industry Perspectives
What are You Managing?
BABOK and Requirements Management
Guidelines
Q &A
Requirements Management
“An end user is someone who TELLS you what they
really wanted the day after you deliver what they
ASKED for!”
Ian Sturrock, PoddarCo
“We build systems like the Wright brothers built
airplanes - build the whole thing, push it off a cliff, let
it crash and start all over again”
R.M. Graham
3
What I Am Not Talking About…
CASE Spec 8.0
CARE 3.2
Compuware
Optimal Trace
CORE 5.1
Cradle 5.2
Envision VIP
Gatherspace
IBM Rational
Suite
IRQA 4
KolabNet Editor
2005
PACE
RaQUEST 3.1
RDT 3.0.2
RMTrac
RTM
SLATE Require
6.5
SoftREQ
UGS TeamCentre
TrueReqProduct
Desktop
SAT
ECM
Banyan 2.2
Contour
Projectricity 3.5
OSRMT 1.3
In-Step
Cognition
Cockpit 5
FeaturePlan 2.6
AnalystPro
ChangeWare
Aligned Elements
Dassualt Systems
CSE 4.0
Telelogic DOORS
AnalystStudio
Tracer
4
What Am I Talking About…
5
Alignment Challenges
6
Rates of Change
Alignment Challenges
7
Communication
Alignment Challenges
8
Who’s Goals?
So, What is Happening Out There...
“Failure has become the IT industry norm1”
1
Duncan Haughey (PMP), projectsmart.co.uk
9
Industry Perspectives
• 550 Companies partook in the Survey
• Project budget $1 Million or more
FINDINGS
• 75% waste $1 for every $3 spent on
Development because of low
requirements maturity
• Only 54% of the Business Objectives are
met
• It takes 35% longer to achieve 54% of
the business objective!
10
Industry Perspectives
Requirements
Immaturity
Requirements
Maturity
87% - Reduction in time overruns
95% - Average on budget performance improvement
75% - Reduction budget overruns
75% - Increase on the desired functionality delivered
11
Industry Perspectives
Research Report – March 2009
Requirements form the Foundation of
Software Quality
Poor Requirements Management is a leading cause of friction
between IT & Business
6 X more cost effective to fix requirements during
Requirements phase
70% of defects are injected during the requirements phase
12
Industry Perspectives
13
What Are You Managing?
SDLC
14
What Are You Managing?
PRODUCERS
CONSUMERS
Customer (Sponsor)
Quality Assurance
Business Requirements – Drivers
Functional & Non-Functional Req.
Users
Development
Functional Requirements
Functional & Non-Functional Req.
Project Management
3rd Parties
Size, Complexity, Deadlines
Expectations, Constraints
TRACEABILITY through the SDLC
15
BABOK and Requirements Management
16
BABOK and Requirements Management
The Requirements Management and Communication
Knowledge Area describes the activities and considerations for
managing and expressing requirements to a broad and diverse
audience.

Communicating requirements helps to bring the stakeholders to a common
understanding of the requirements. Because the stakeholders represent people from
different backgrounds and business domains, this communication is both challenging and
critical to the success of any initiative.

Management of requirements assists with understanding the effects of change and
linking business goals and objectives to the actual solution that is constructed and
delivered.
17
Requirements Management: Guidelines
1. Communication

Majority of issues can be reduced by keeping everybody
connected



Speak in ACTIONABLE outcomes



What does done look like?
Who is committing to getting it done?
Speak in units of measure that is meaningful to the different
stakeholders

18
Collaboration
Traceability
Time and Money
Communication vs. Representation
19
Communication vs. Representation
20
Requirements Management: Guidelines
2. Action

Processes are never perfect, so don’t wait for it to be perfect
before you want to start something

Analysis paralysis instead of delivering working software

Action things in short cycles
21
Requirements Management: Guidelines
3. Ambiguity

Write useful and concise requirements

Karl Wiegers, a well respected requirements management
consultant, put together a list of ambiguous terms to avoid:
 Fast
 Flexible
 Adequate
 Simple
 Shouldn’t
 robust
22
Requirements Management: Guidelines
4. Stay in Constant Contact with your Customer

It is very easy to lose sight of the customer’s needs

Constant interaction and feedback from the customer

The fundamental skill here is commitment


23
Committing to picking up the phone to call the customer
Committing to regularly sitting down with the customer and showing
them something real
Requirements Management: Guidelines
5. Prioritization

This needs to be done as OBJECTIVELY as possible!

Develop an objective prioritization model

Understand prioritization trade-offs

Development time is valuable!!
24
Guidelines: Recap
Communication
Prioritization
Contact with
Customer
25
Action
Ambiguity
The End
Q &A
26