Requirements Management

Definition

Requirements Management

the requirements engineering task during which the identified requirements are managed

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, Requirements Management is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Abstract
• Superclass: Engineering Task
• Subclasses: None

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of Requirements Management are to:

• Record and store the requirements and their attributes (i.e., metadata about the requirements) in an appropriate repository, database, or requirements tool.
• Control access (e.g., create, read, update, delete) to the requirements
  (e.g., based on metadata such as authorization to create/read/update/delete requirements by role, requirement state, requirement ownership, requirement responsibility, date of last change to the requirement, etc.).
• Negotiate with the stakeholders
  to eliminate any inconsistencies between requirements and their priorities.
• Report the status of the requirements
  (e.g., the number, percentage, and state of the requirements and requirements categories).
• Trace the requirements
  (e.g., to the associated architecture, design, implementation, and test work products).

Preconditions

Requirements management can typically begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The requirements team is adequately staffed and trained in requirements management.
• Some [potential] requirements exist to be managed.

Completion Criteria

Requirements management is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• All requirements are frozen.
• The endeavor is completed.

Steps

Requirements management typically involves the following teams performing the following steps in an iterative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Requirements Team:
  • Store and update the requirements and their attributes in an appropriate repository, database, or requirements management tool.
  • Control stakeholder access to the requirements (e.g., based on metadata such as authorization to create/read/update/delete requirements by role, requirement state, requirement ownership, requirement responsibility, date of last change to the requirement, etc.).
  • Manage the internal and external approval of the requirements.
  • Publish the requirements (possibly automatically via a publish and subscribe mechanism) to the appropriate stakeholders at the appropriate time (e.g., upon approval or change).
  • Trace the requirements back to goals and down to the associated architecture, design, implementation, and test work products.

Techniques

Requirements management can typically be performed using the following techniques:

• Unique identification of requirements.
• Requirements traceability.
• Automation of requirements management steps.

Work Products

Requirements management typically results in the production of all or part of the following work products:

• Managed requirements.

Guidelines

• Requirements should be managed throughout their entire lifecycle from initial identification through analysis, approval, specification, freezing, and retirement.
• Requirements management becomes increasingly important as the number and types of requirements increase and the criticality of the associated application/component increases.
• It is not unusual for a nontrivial application to have 1,000-25,000 individual, testable requirements. Huge applications (e.g., air traffic control systems, jet aircraft, nuclear reactor control systems) can have from 100,000 to 500,000 requirements.
• Requirements management should be performed iteratively, incrementally, and in parallel with other tasks (e.g., requirements elicitation, requirements analysis, requirements prototyping, requirements reuse, requirements specification).
• If the analyzed requirements are stored in a requirements management tool or a modeling tool, the requirements specifications can be automatically generated from the requirements repository using appropriate templates.
• Much of this task is repetative record-keeping that is best automated by means of a requirements management tool.