Why is Implementing Effective Requirements Practices So Hard? Dr. Ralph R. Young ryoungrr@aol.com www.ralphyoung.net Society for Software Quality February 13, 2003

Causes of Problems Surrounding the Implementation of Effective Requirements Practices There are different ideas and opinions as to what the real requirements are. We don’t know what the real requirements are, do we? We initiate other technical work too early—the result: rework (40-50% of costs). There is lacking an effective mechanism to control changes to requirements and new requirements during the development process. There is no documented requirements process, or it’s not used, or it doesn’t support the needs of the project and the customer/users. The customer and project management are anxious to get moving on “the real work.” There are a variety of “people-related problems” (resulting in a lack of effective teamwork). Lack of effective communications. People on the project don’t know what each other are doing. Methods, techniques, tools, mechanisms are not familiar, proven, or effective. There is no zeal for continuous improvement. Management. (Sponsorship, support, being there, being aware, make timely decisions.) Requirements analysts could benefit from more training and knowledge. A project risk management process is not used effectively to identify, analyze, prioritize, and mitigate project risks.

Effective Project Practices Commit to the approach. Establish and utilize a Joint Team to be responsible for the requirements. Define the real customer needs. Use a requirements process and continually improve it. Iterate the system requirements and the system architecture repeatedly. Use a mechanism to maintain project communication between and among all engineering groups throughout the development effort. Select familiar methods and maintain a set of work products that collectively comprise the current requirements specification. Perform requirements verification and validation. Provide an effective mechanism to accommodate changes in requirements during system life cycle development. Perform the development effort using known familiar proven industry, organizational, and project best practices.

Some Characteristics of Effective [Requirements and Quality] Analysts An attitude of continuous improvement and commitment to meet customers real needs. Good listener, communicator, and writer. Commitment to learning, applying, and using improved practices and methods, and to project success. Proactive in engaging co-workers, project management, customers, and users. Expert knowledge of requirements engineering and requirements practices. Ability to estimate the resources and time required to accomplish technical work. Takes responsibility for her/his views, attitudes, relationships, and actions. Maintains focus on keeping the main thing the main thing. Persevering. Maintains a good knowledge of evolving technology and how it can be applied to meet customer needs. Sets achievable goals and meets them. Desires to "make a difference" in his/her professional work. Good facilitation skills. Ability to "think outside the box" to provide creative approaches that might not occur to people who are close to the problem and the legacy system.