Chapter 10: Establishing the Requirements (10%)

Question 1

typical problems with requirements

Answer 1

• Lack of relevance to the project objectives
• Lack of clarity in the wording
• Ambiguity
• Duplication and conflict between requirements
• Poorly expressed requirements
• Requirements that assume a solution (rather than stating what is needed from the solution)
• Uncertainty from the users about what they expect
• Users omit requirements
• Varying and inconsistent requirements
• users and analysts taking knowledge for granted

Question 2

how can we address the problem of :
Lack of relevance to the project objectives

Answer 2

OSCAR
Objectives
Scope
Constraints
Authority
Resources

• don’t assume knowledge
• recognise different stakeholder viewpoints

Question 3

core activities in the Requirements Engineering framework

Answer 3

Requirements elicitation

Requirements analysis

Requirements validation

Requirements documentation

Requirements management

Question 4

Requirements Elicitation is concerned with

Answer 4

gathering requirements from stakeholders

Question 5

Requirements Analysis is concerned with

Answer 5

review/analyse requirements to:

• remove duplication/error
• negotiate conflicts and contradictions
• evaluate feasibility
• allocate priorities

Question 6

Requirements Validation is concerned with

Answer 6

stakeholders review requirements (to assure they’re defined at required level of quality)

Question 7

Requirements Documentation is concerned with

Answer 7

producing narrative + diagrammatic definitions of requirements (at varying levels of accuracy + completion)

Question 7

Requirements Management is concerned with

Answer 7

managing changes to defined requirements + ensuring desired level of traceability is achieved

Question 8

2 main groups of actors in RE:

Answer 8

business representatives

project team

Question 9

roles in business representatives group

Answer 9

project sponsor

product owner

SME

business staff (people who apply the new business processes + use new IT system)

Question 11

what responsibilities does project sponsor have

Answer 11

• agree PID (project initiation document)
• make funds + resources available
• resolve conflicting requirements
• sign off requirements document
• accept deliverables at project end
• deliver the benefits
• confirm benefits have been realised

Question 12

product owners responsibilities:

Answer 12

• manage product backlog (ensure priorities have been identified + align with business needs)
• identify backlog items to be developed in each product development iteration
• make decisions on behalf of organisation regarding product development + resolve requirement conflicts
• ensure product development stays on track

Question 13

SME responsibility is to give business advice regarding requirements, particularly when the organisation wishes to…

Answer 13

• adopt latest industry best practise/innovations
• introduce a new product/process that isn’t fully understood

Question 14

Business staff responsibilities

Answer 14

articulate both

• functional requirements
• non-functional requirements

Question 15

actors in project team

Answer 15

project manager

business analyst

developers

software testers

Question 16

project manager responsibilities

Answer 16

• planning project
• allocating work
• monitoring progress
• taking corrective action

Question 17

BA responsibilities

Answer 17

• carrying out RE work (ensure requirements are defined, in line with project approach/standards, provide basis to solution)
• work closely with business staff (elicitation, analysis, documentation of requirements)

Question 18

developer responsibilities

(creates the software product in line with business requirements)

Answer 18

• check technical feasibility of requirements
• help analyst understand implication of requirements
• produce prototypes
• help business users visualise what they’ve requested

Question 19

tester responsibilities

Answer 19

• tyring to prove the system does not work + identify where this is the case
• review requirements to ensure they’re feasible
• ensure acceptance criteria properly defined

Question 20

categories within General requirements (business)

Answer 20

• business constraints (budget, timescale, resources)
• business policies
• business continuity (ability to recover from incidents that hinder continued operation)
• legal
• branding
• cultural
• language

Question 21

categories within Technical requirements (business)

Answer 21

hardware

software

interface

internet (technical policies governing the use of internet/ web-enabled services)

Question 22

categories within Functional requirements (solution)

Answer 22

data entry (+ processing, reporting)

data maintenance

procedural

retrieval requirements

Question 23

categories within Non-functional requirements (solution)

Answer 23

performance (speed)

security + access

backup + recovery

archiving + retention

robustness

availability

usability

accessibility

capacity + scalability (volumes of data to be stored/ transactions to be processed/ no. stakeholders to be supported)
(increase scale of coverage of solution to accommodate more transactions/ stakeholders)

(think ‘ilities’)

Question 24

most effective requirement elicitation techniques in a workshop

Answer 24

- visulations - modelling CSF analysis scenario analysis prototyping

Question 25

other requirement elicitation techniques

Answer 25

interviews document analysis

Question 26

approaches for uncovering tacit knowledge and key techniques used:

Answer 26

Observe: observation, shadowing Recount: storytelling, scenario analysis Enact: prototyping, scenario role-play

Question 26

4 tasks included in requirements analysis:

Answer 26

1. categorising requirements 2. modelling requirements (using Class models or Use case diagrams) 3. prioritising requirements (can use RAG or MoSCoW) 4. Defining requirements (can apply filters)

Question 27

are these individual level of knowledge tacit or explicit? task definitions, job descriptions, targets, volumes, frequencies

Answer 27

explicit

Question 28

are these individual level of knowledge tacit or explicit? skills, values, taken-for-granted knowledge, intuitiveness

Answer 28

tacit

Question 29

are these corporate level of knowledge tacit or explicit? norms, culture, networks, organisation history, back story

Answer 29

tacit

Question 30

are these corporate level of knowledge tacit or explicit? procedures, style guides, processes, knowledge sharing repositories, manuals, company reports

Answer 30

explicit

Question 31

define MoSCoW

Answer 31

Must have (mandatory, solution not acceptable w/o) Should have (mandatory, but may be deferred to 2nd increment) Could have (desirable but solution acceptable w/o) Want to have (but won't have this time)

Question 32

requirement filters are used to examine elicited requirements and produce well-formed set. what are the key analysis filters?

Answer 32

- unravel multiple requirements - check for overlapping/duplicates - confirm relevance - evaluate feasibility (technical, business + financial) - remove conflicts - check for solutions - confirm quality (clear, concise, consistent, relevant, unambiguous, correct, testable, traceable)

Question 32

what does INVEST stand for

Answer 32

each user story/backlog item should be: Independent Negotiable Valuable (to users/ customers) Estimatable Small (suitable size for iteration planning) Testable (have specific measure to evaluate if it's been achieved)

Question 33

what is INVEST used for

Answer 33

provides quality check to evaluate + improve user stories

Question 34

2 categories of business rules to consider + their sub-categories what techniques are helpful to elicit and document the rules?

Answer 34

Constraints - Action governance (use narrative statements) - Data constraints (use data models + definitions, CRUD matrices) Operational guidance - decision conditions (activity diagrams, BPM, decision tables, tables, matrices) - calculations (arithmetical formulae, structured English, pseudocode)