6. Management practices for requirements

Question 1

Requirement management

Answer 1

the process of storing, changing and tracing requirements

activities that identify, document, maintain, communicate, trace and track requirements throughout the life cycle of a system, product or service.

Need to make sure that all parties involved have access to the correct versions of all requirements that are relevant to them

Question 2

Requirements management can occur at different levels

Answer 2

1. individual requirements
2. work products that contain these requirements
3. system related to the work products and the requirements container therein

Question 3

More thorough requirements management is needed

Answer 3

1. larger number of requirements
2. stakeholders
3. developers
4. longer expected lifetime
5. more changes
6. higher quality demands
7. more complex development process
8. more strict standards, norms and regulations (audit trail)

Question 4

Requirements life cycle

Answer 4

1. Elicited
2. Documented
3. Validated
4. Under construction
5. Implemented
6. Under change
7. Archived
8. Deleted

NB
1. requirement and product life cycle is different
2. requirement lifecycle is different for different roles

Question 5

Life cycle management implies

Answer 5

1. Defining life cycle models for your work products and the requirements contained in them with
2. The states that a work product or requirement can take
3. The transitions allowed between these states
4. The events that trigger the transition from one state to another
5. Recording the actual states that the work products and requirements take
6. Recording the actual transitions that occur
7. Reporting on these states and transitions

Question 6

Reasons for version control of work products

Answer 6

1. sometimes changes go wrong => can go back to a previous version

2 know the history of the work product, understand its evolution - answer questions on why the current work product is what it is

Question 7

Measures for version control

Question 8

Parts of version numbers

Answer 8

1. version
2. increment

Question 9

Version

Answer 9

A version is increased only for major, substantive updates

New version number if assigned for each formal change
starts from 0

Question 10

Increment

Answer 10

every externally visible change on the content side or often only textual or editorial. Subincrement can be used for correction of typos

starts from 1
9 - sometimes used for final version

Question 11

Measures for version control

Answer 11

1. Identification of each version (number + date)
2. Clear description of each change (linked to version number)
3. Strict policy on storage of versions, enabling to locate and retrieve + policy for cleaning up

Question 12

Configuration

Answer 12

a consistent set of logically related work products that contain requirements. the set is selected with a specific purpose, usually to make clear which requirements are or were valid in a certain situation

Question 13

Properties for configurations

Answer 13

1. Logically connected (together in view of a certain goal)
2. Consistent (no internal conflicts)
3. Unique
4. Unchangeable (not changed in the this configuration)
5. Basis for reset

Question 14

Configuration is documented as

Answer 14

1. unique identification
2. a state
3. version number
4. date

Question 15

Dimensions of configuration

Answer 15

1. Product dimension
2. Version dimension

Question 16

Product dimension of configuration

Answer 16

which requirements are included in this specific configuration (i.e. all requirements from French release system)

Question 17

Version dimension of configuration

Answer 17

every selected requirement is present in exactly one and only one version.

Question 18

Baseline

Answer 18

a stable, validated and change-controlled configuration that marks a milestone of another kind of resting point in the project (i.e. sprint backlog - baseline at the start of the iteration)

Question 19

Attributes

Answer 19

1. characteristics of requirements
2. depends on the information needs of stakeholders
3. at the start an attribute schema should be set that enables the RE to fullfill these needs

Question 20

ISO standard for attributes

Answer 20

1. identification
2. stakeholder priority
3. dependency
4. risk (estimate from stakeholders)
5. source
6. rationale
7. difficulty (effort - planning)
8. type

Question 21

View

Answer 21

a (often predefined) way to filter and sort the data on work products resulting in a report that shows precisely what the audience needs, no more no less.

defined with explicit purpose of delivering relevant information for a specific target group

Question 22

Types of views

Answer 22

1. Selective views
2. projective views
3. aggregating views

Question 23

Without Traceability it is hard

Answer 23

1. provide evidence that a certain requirement is satisfied
2. Prove that a requirement has been implemented and by what means
3. Show product compliance with applicable laws and standards
4. Analyse the effect of a change to requirements

Question 24

Types of traceability

Answer 24

1. Backward traceability (what was origin of a certain requirement)
2. Forward traceability (where is the requirements used)
3. Traceability between requirements

Question 25

Documenting traceability

Answer 25

1. Implicitly - naming convention
2. using attributes (i.e. source)
3. adding reference to documents to other documents, products
4. developing a traceability matrix in a spreadsheet or a database table
5. textually
6. trace graph

Question 26

Priority of a requirement

Answer 26

the level of importance assigned to it according to a certain criteria

1. What is the goal of prioritization => not all requirements have to be prioritised, only subset
2. what criteria to use

Question 27

Steps to follow for prioritising requirements

Answer 27

1. define major goals and constraints for prioritization
2. define assessment criteria (business value, urgency, effort, risk)
3. define stakeholders involved in prioritization
4. define requirements to be prioritised
5. select prioritization technique
6. perform prioritisation

Question 28

Prioritization techniques

Answer 28

Need that all stakeholders agree on them

1. Ad hoc techniques
2. Analytical techniques

Question 29

Ad hoc prioritization techniques

Answer 29

priority is assigned based on experience - subjective perception of the expert. (several experts)

Question 30

Ad hoc prioritization techniques examples

Answer 30

1. Top-10 ranking
2. Must have, should have, could have, won’t have this time
3. Keno analysis

Question 31

Analytical techniques

Answer 31

systematic approach for assigning priorities

1. might get broader acceptance
2. harder, longer
3. affected by weights =>. need prior stakeholder agreement
4. criteria are estimates, not measured facts => imprecision

Beware pseudo-accuracy

Question 32

Change enablement

Answer 32

practice ensures that changes are implemented effectively, safely and in a timely manner in order to meet stakeholders’ expectations

Question 33

Change enablement focuses on

Answer 33

1. ensuring that all risks have been assessed
2. authorising changes to proceed
3. managing the change implementation

Question 34

Change authority

Answer 34

1. draft state - author can change
2. released - impact analysis