Methods for Effective Requirements Development Ivy Hooks Compliance Automation Inc.

A Few Methods Share the vision Create operational concepts Involve all stakeholders Apply discipline and control to requirement format

Have a Vision Share that Vision

Else everyone picks their own vision This is a software example of the costs to fix a requirement error. The same concept applies to hardware. The units are some type of resource (dollars, man hours, etc.). The main point is that the cost goes up dramatically the further you get into development because of the unnecessary rework. Work-arounds are bad and frustrating. Fix problems early to avoid rework, increased costs, and slips in your schedule. To avoid these problems you must take the time to make sure you have a good set of requirements before beginning design and development.

Vision Needs, goals and objectives Operational concepts for all life-cycle phases Involving all stakeholders - early Defining drivers and interfaces

Operational Concepts A day in the life of your product

All life-cycle phases

All Stakeholders Manufacturing Marketing Users Testing Management

Reverse Engineer the Vision Someone gives you requirements and no vision – you invent the vision You take it back to that someone and get confirmation Expect magic

Requirements Are about communication Apple

Basics of Good Requirements Clear, concise, unambiguous Grammatically correct Positive statements Needed Verifiable Attainable – technically, cost, schedule Include rationale Well organized

Words to watch for Words that end in –ly or –ize. Etc., including but not limited to Support, accommodate, be capable of, be able to And/or Sufficient, robust, user-friendly, easy to use, adequate, maximize, minimize, optimize, …

Forget what you learned in English 101 The system shall provide its own power The system shall operate autonomously The system shall have built-in-self test Requirements are supposed to be boring

Remove Unwanted Implementation The aircraft shall have three engines. The aircraft shall meet the operation requirements with a single engine out. WHY? What do you want to verify?

Beware of Operations The operator shall be able to turn the machine on or off

Don’t Allow Bad Requirements Set up a gate Define the rules Don’t accept poor quality requirements Use inspections to find requirement defects early Hold effective reviews Reward good requirements

Frequent Response BEFORE CLASS What problem do you want to cover in the class? How do we deal with constantly changing requirements? AFTER CLASS What problem do you see to implementing what you have learned? My manager won’t change, will just keep doing things the same old way.

Why Johnny Can’t Write Requirements He doesn’t know how The schedule ignores the process We need cultural change True in 1990 and still true today

Solution to all problems Reorganize The object of this class is so you can learn to conduct an efficient, effective review process that enables you to find errors, fix those errors, assess risk, conserve resources, and minimize the time to do this. To find errors in your requirements you need domain knowledge to detect incorrect, missing, or conflicting requirements. It is hard to edit your own work because you are too close (can’t see the forest for the trees.) You need a fresh set of eyes to review your requirements. You may not always have a finished set, so you need to determine when the risk is acceptable to go forward and start development. You want a process that makes the best use of resources – you don’t want to waste peoples time. Finally, your review and baseline process needs to be done in a streamlined, efficient, and effective manner. You can’t afford for this process to go on without end. A major outcome of this class is the you will learn a 4 1/2 step review process to ensure that you have a good set of requirements prior to baseline, that you know the risk of proceeding with development, and that you know the lessons learned from your requirements capture experience. Note: There is no need to go into further detail. There are other slides that will go into the detail of each point. Buy tools

No time to do it right Putting out fires is fun Doing it right gets no respect

Enter the hero

Better Requirements = $$$$$ earned Put process in place Educate your people Reward those who do it right the first time Reap the rewards

Information Ecology, Thomas H. Davenport, Oxford 1997 References Customer-Centered Products – Creating Successful Products Through Smart Requirement Management, Ivy Hooks and Kristin Farry, AMACOM 2000 The Stuff Americans Are Made Of, Josh Hammond and James Morrison, Macmillan 1996 Information Ecology, Thomas H. Davenport, Oxford 1997 Give students HO 6 which includes a spec without rationale, scope, or extra ops concepts Students will see how hard it is to check tracing without scope, ops concepts, and rationale.