Requirements Structure 2.0

1
Requirements Structure 2.0

• Clark Elliott
• Instructor
• With debt to Chris Thomopolous and Ali Merchant
• Original Authors

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Project Overview

• Overview
• What are you building? (in one sentence!)
• Why? (in one sentence!)
• Business Objective
• What is the business plan? Competition? Money
  figures? Etc. Three sentences.
• Benefit
• What need do you fill? Why do we care? Three
  sentences.

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Project Overview

• Due Diligence already done?
• What have others done? What can you use of what
  they have already done? Why is yours better?
• Assumptions.
• What users, system, software, market, education
  level, etc. assumptions are you making?
• Stakeholders.
• Who will be involved in this project? What is
  their stake in it?

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Project Overview

• Constraints
• What will limit development, how will it affect
  the final product, and what are necessary
  strategies.
• Three Columns
• (a) constraint (b) impact (c ) strategy
• Example
• (a) Education level of users wrt. Sarbanes-Oxley
  Act of 2002 (b) Cannot use abbreviated screens (c
  ) cut less important modules from tutorial to
  make up time.

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Project Overview

• Risk Management
• What could go wrong? What risks are we taking in
  making assumptions about unknown futures?
• Three columns
• Specific Risk
• Potential Impact
• Mitigation Strategy
• Risk Management plan and discussion

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Project Group Management

• Management strategy -- discussion
• Process by which conflicts are identified and
  resolved in the group
• Proactive tasks of the management team
• Polling for problems
• Schedule slippage/serendipity predictions
• Progress reports
• Accountability model
• Acknowledgement model
• Agenda management who, how, when, where?

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Project Roles

• What are the defined responsibilities / roles /
  subgroups in the project?

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Client / Developer Management

• Process by which conflicts are resolved.
• Formal description of assumptions regarding
  language, calendar, costs, etc.
• Liaison role who, how, when, where?
• Negotiator role who, how, when, where?

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Client / Developer Management

• Formal description of process for changes to
  requirements after freeze date.
• Allowed or not?
• Meet between dev. and client?
• Formal steps in the process?
• Negotiation procedure?
• Small changes?

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Communications management

• For each of dev. group and client/dev.
• Where is address book kept?
• Regular meetings and agenda?
• How often is email checked?
• Newsgroup management?
• Project workbook?

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Communications management

• For project group
• Website management
• Time log agreements and posting rules
• Skill set communication (internal only?)
• Subgroup communication model

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Communications management

• For project client / dev. team
• Exclusions from client internal only
• Channel for feedback from client
• Informal communications between lower level
  development team / client team workers? Meeting
  time?
• Channel for dynamic problems / serendipity from
  client regarding project

13
Scope Change Management

• What is the original scope of the project?
• How are changes to the scope of the project
  handled?

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Business Processes

• What business processes are being captured in the
  project?
• How are the processes defined?
• How do we verify that the business processes have
  been implemented? Review session? Client?
  Development team?

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Technical Scope

• What are the technical components of the
  infrastructure?
• If the scope increases / decreases, how will the
  infrastructure change?

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Project Phases

• What are the phases in project development?
• E.g., requirements, plan, design, test plan,
  implementation, scope review, mid-point client
  review, bug fixing, alpha/beta releases,
  documentation, maintenance cycle, training, etc.

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Business Requirements

• To implement the correct business processes, what
  business requirements must be met?
• There is overlap with functional requirements,
  but these are more global. For example, one might
  want to state some of these in the negative as
  in, e.g., that the software must not be something
  a competitor could steal and use.

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Functional Requirements

• Full, explicit listing, possibly with three or
  more hierarchical levels
• Careful description of what functions the
  software and extended system must perform on the
  users behalf.
• In other words, what must the users be able to
  get from the system? What help can they count on
  from using this system? What problems will it
  solve for them, and exactly how?

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Technical Requirements

• Full, explicit listing, possibly with three or
  more hierarchical levels.
• What are the technical details that define the
  workings of the system itself? E.g., how is the
  PayPal module required to work? How much disk
  space do we require? What is the model for
  updating the content of web screens?

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Security Requirements

• What are the functional requirements for security
  in the system?
• Important what are the social functions required
  of the whole system (including the users and the
  corporation).
• Might be folded into the full set of functional
  requirements
• How are security authorization vs. management
  authorization handled?
• E.g., systems programmer vs. CEO

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Security Requirements

• What are the technical requirements for your
  security model?
• Level of encryption, algorithms, password model,
  biometrics, interoperability, etc.
• Might be folded into the full set of technical
  requirements
• Will the model scale up?

22
User Profile Requirements

• What is the set of users, technical managers,
  etc. that interact with the system?
• What education / skill level is required of each?
• How are users trained?

23
Testing Requirements

• What is the test plan? (big discussion)
• What are the testing roles?
• How do we know the tests verify our goals?
• Contingency plans for re-testing of modules and
  systems.
• Documentation of tests
• Failed tests records?
• Does the test plan drive the system?

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Documentation Requirements

• Documentation for each user role?
• Administrators
• Technical maintenance staff
• Ordinary users
• Commented code for maintenance

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Wolves and Thieves

• Description of the Gang of Thieves, and the Wolf
  pack. Who, when, how?
• Documentation of attacks.
• Cyclic development and record?
• Sign off on EVERY requirement?
• Calendar, dates, schedule?

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Author / Editor

• Who is the author?
• Who is the editor?
• What is the schedule, and relationship between
  requirements author and editor?
• Revision history?