ASEE Software Engineering Process Improvement Workshop HOT TOPIC, 2001 James Bielak www.greenstoneconsulting.com

The IT Industry Albatross… Many projects are CANCELED before completion Many are LATE Many are OVER BUDGET Many require RESTARTING Products LACK DESIRED FEATURES The Standish Group, CHAOS report, 1995 standishgroup.com/visitor/chaos.htm Slide 2

Source of the problem Lack of user input Incomplete requirements & specifications Changing requirements & specifications Why don’t we “do” better requirements? The Standish Group, CHAOS report, 1995 standishgroup.com/visitor/chaos.htm Slide 3

The size element of development teams Fayad, CACM v43 n3 p115 64.9% 13.1% 8.9% 7.2% 3.1% 87% work for companies < 20 94% work for companies < 50 Slide 4

Who “does” requirements? Project managers System architects Software developers “Programmer/Analysts” Slide 5

Conflict of interest! PMgr: “My team is already overworked!” SArch: Inventing solutions instead of listening SDev: “When can I get back to my programming?” Slide 6

Requirements Specialists: HOT TOPIC in 2001 Not just a part-time job Understanding the customer Writing things down Organizing complexity If you can’t support a fulltime analyst borrow one! outsource! Slide 7

We can do better! Thank you! James Bielak Jbielak@greenstoneconsulting.com Slide 8