Jouhayna Al-Ayoubi SWEN 5230 – Software Project Management Requirements Management Success Starts with Requirements Management Software Crisis  CHAOS report indicates only a distinct minority of software projects is completed on time and under budget – – – Successful projects are only 16.2% Challenged projects accounted for 52.7% Impaired projects accounted for 31.1% Causes of Software Crisis  Failures attributed to poor requirements management – Incorrect definition of requirements – Poor management throughout development lifecycle Solution to Software Crisis  Effective requirements management! – – – The factor most related to successful projects Ensures right problem is solved Ensures right system is built Requirements Management  A systematic approach to – Eliciting – Organizing – Documenting – And managing the changing requirements of a software project  Not a new concept! Rational Approach to Requirements Management  Rational provides complete solution to requirements management – Rational Unified Process(RUP) » Recommends specific requirements management skills » Provides specific guidelines to effectively implement skills – Tools to automate these skills » RequisitePro, Rose, ClearCase Requirements Management Skills  Six essential management skills: – – – – – – Analyze the problem Understand the user needs Define the system Manage the scope of the system Refine the system definition Manage the changing requirements Requirements Management in RUP   Requirements management skills implemented in the requirements coreworkflow Considered workflows Analyze the Problem  Purpose is to: – Gain an agreement on system features and goals – Develop Vision document for the project  The key artifacts produced in the workflow: – – – Vision document Requirement management plan for the project Glossary Understand the User Needs  Purpose is to: – Collect information from the various stakeholders of the project – Use different elicitation techniques to elicit requests Understand the User Needs  The key artifacts produced in the workflow: – – – – Refined vision document Initial Use case model Supplementary specifications Refined glossary Define the System  Purpose is to: – Ensure that all project team members understand the system – Perform high-level analysis on the results collected in previous workflows – Formally document results Define the System  The key artifacts produced in the workflow: – – – – Refined vision document Refined use case model Refined Supplementary specifications Refined glossary Manage the Scope of the System  Purpose is to: – Define the set of requirements to be included in this version of the system – Define a set of architecturally-significant features and uses cases – Define attributes and traceability to help prioritize requirements Manage the Scope of the System  The key artifacts produced in the workflow: – – – Iteration plan Refined vision document Refined glossary Refine the System  Purpose is to: – Provide a more in-depth understanding of the system’s features – Provide detailed descriptions of use cases – Model and prototype user interfaces Refine the System  The key artifacts produced in the workflow: – – – – – User-interface prototype Detailed use case model Revised iteration plan Refined vision Refined glossary Manage Changing Requirements  Purpose is to: – Control and manage change – Set up appropriate requirements attributes and traceabilities Tool Support - RequisitePro Easy to use requirements management tool  Leverages the power of database with the freedom of Word  Multi-user support  Provides distributed access to projects via its Web interface  Provides document templates and capability to import existing documents  RequisitePro Manages Requirements Define System – templates, import capability, requirement and document types  Manage scope – Traceability matrix and tree, attribute types  Manage change – Suspect links, group discussions, revision history  Why Manage Requirements?  Meeting the project’s requirements defines success! Why Rational Approach?  Rational provides a more disciplined approach to requirements management – Does not only tell organizations what to do, provides assistance on how to it  Rational dedicated the last few years to requirements management References    Davis, Alan, Leffingwell, Dean Using Requirements Management to Speed Delivery of Higher Quality Applications Rational Web Site On-line at http://www.rational.com/products/whitepapers Kruchten, Philippe The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction, Second Edition Reading MA: Addison Wesley Longman, October 2000, pp.155-169 Leffingwell, Dean A Field Guide to Effective Requirements Management under SEI’s Capability Maturity Model Rational Web Site On-line at http://www.rational.com/products/whitepapers References  Leffingwell, Dean Managing Software Requirements: A Unified Approach Reading MA: Addison Wesley Longman, November 2000  Oberg, Roger Applying Requirements with Use Cases Rational Web Site On-line at http://www.rational.com/products/whitepapers Parackel, Thomas Managing Requirements in a Development Cycle IWD Web Site On-line at http://www.indiawebdevelopers com/articles Rational RequisitePro Rational Web Site On-line at http://www.rational.com/products/reqpro Royce, Walker Software Project Management: A Unified Framework Reading MA: Addison Wesley Longman, December 1999, pp.118-124   