Hot Topics: Requirements Management

Hot Topic: Requirements Management Defining, changing and gathering requirements is one of the first steps that can get your project off on the right foot, or headed down the wrong path. Common Component Change Request ( Questionnaire - Template ) Use this Common Component Change Request Form to track all component change requests. Articles Testing Requirements - by Luc K. Richard (October 27, 2003) Requirements Definition is one of the various activities of the software lifecycle. And like any other activity, it must be tested before being declared as complete. The Requirements Puzzle - by Paula K. Martin (May 2, 2001) Before you start putting the pieces together, you need to see the big picture. Learn how to define your customer's project requirements and fit them into the right solution. The Art of Requirements Gathering - by George Spafford (March 10, 2003) A project has an objective to attain in a fixed amount of time with a limited amount of resources. Attaining the objective means that necessary requirements must be identified and managed. The intent of this article is to build on previous articles discussing expectations and provide some ideas about the requirements-gathering process. What Can Go Wrong with Workgroup Workflow: Requirements & Stipulations (Part 1 of 3) - by Joe Wynne (February 10, 2005) Is your workgroup's firm foundation actually a bed of crackers? What Can Go Wrong with Workgroup Workflow: Requirements & Stipulations (Part 2 of 3) - by Joe Wynne (March 10, 2005) Is your workgroup’s firm foundation actually a bed of crackers? As our series continues, we continue to look at the importance of basics: requirements and stipulations. What Can Go Wrong with Workgroup Workflow: Requirements & Stipulations (Part 3 of 3) - by Joe Wynne (April 7, 2005) Is your workgroup's firm foundation actually a bed of crackers? The final installment in our series continues to look at scope of work, and at quality requirements. Know What You Need - by Andre Leclerc (June 2, 2000) Do you really expect to get what you want if you don't know what you need? Requirements are essential to success. Get them right--right from the start. Discovering Stakeholder Expectations - by George Spafford (December 11, 2002) It pays to understand and manage the expectations of sponsors and stakeholders. As expectations are reviewed and nominated to become requirements, the use of a "parking lot" list will help ease the stress for some unmet expectations, and change management will further help ensure that expectations are met when the project draws to a close. Park your eyes here to find out more. Stakeholder Expectations - by George Spafford (November 4, 2002) We've explored the identification and mapping of stakeholders, the first steps of the expectation management process. If expectations are not actively managed during the course of a project, then the risks for partial or total project failure increase. With that in mind, this article will continue to explore the theme and lay the groundwork for the active management of stakeholder expectations. Designing to Close the Stakeholder Value Gap - by Michael R. Wood (June 15, 2001) Asking stakeholders what they value seems to be the easiest way to find out. But there are flaws in traditional survey techniques. Here's a three-pronged approach that can help you close the treacherous stakeholer value gap. Free Downloads Requirements Documentation ( Report - Template ) Complete and accurate requirements are possible if you use a template that takes the guesswork out of the process--changes in the user's mind notwithstanding. Preliminary Application Development Requirements ( Specifications/Procedures - Template ) If you are developing an application for users, it helps to know what your basic business requirements are before you begin extensive analysis and design. This form will help you document them. User Requirements Planning Form ( Specifications/Procedures Questionnaire / Questionnaire - Template ) When developing a new system, you'll have to interview the future users and ascertain their requirements for the system. This form walks you through the process. Pre-Development Requirements Checklist To ensure that the system you are preparing to build fully addresses all the necessary user and technical requirements, and only those requirements, answer the questions in this checklist. Assessment of Business Change Requirements ( Evaluation Assessment - Template ) Assess the scope, impact ranking and criticality of each business change required to implement a particular application package. Business Information Requirements ( Report - Template ) What data should you keep in a Data Warehouse and why? This form helps you identify the needed data and its associated characteristics in relation to your business requirements. Business Requirements Documentation ( Evaluation Form - Template ) Stay on top of the definition, gap analysis and magnitude of your requirements using these forms. Premium Downloads Stakeholder Requirements Comparison Matrix ( Template ) Different stakeholder groups affected by your project will want different results. Each group's requirements will not only differ, but sometimes be in conflict. Use this template to identify conflicts/potential conflicts, gaps, contradictions or incompatibilities between stakeholder group requirements, so you can reconcile them. Software Requirements and Technical Specification ( Template ) When you're dealing with software requirements and technical specifications, you can't be too thorough, too detailed or too careful. This template will help you identify the functional/technical requirements for your own special project. It also will help you describe the data model that will be used along with its implementation.

Requirements Management Info Center Webinars On Demand, Featuring Testing Expert Gary Mogyorodi: "Shorten Application Delivery Time with Requirements-Based Testing" In many organizations, testing is viewed as slowing down the delivery of the system, partly because it is the last step in the development process. In this presentation, Requirements-Based Testing (RBT), expert Gary Mogyorodi will contradict this notion and explain how, when an RBT process is properly deployed, it can have a major improvement on overall project delivery timelines and software quality. Featured Reports "Selecting the Right Requirements Management Tool - Or Maybe None Whatsoever" - by Forrester Research According to Forrester Research, application development organizations are often tripped up in their search for the right requirements management solution, and end up buying a tool that is more complex, more difficult to use, and more expensive than necessary. MKS is the only vendor today to fully satisfy all six of the critical features in the report, and to receive the highest, four star, ranking from Forrester after their review of the requirements management tools landscape. Get your complimentary copy of this report. "The Forrester Wave™: Requirements Management, Q2 2008" - by Forrester Research This 79-criteria evaluation looks at the strength of five standalone requirements management tools and four application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions, in the categories of Current Offering, Strategy, and Market Presence. In the report, MKS receives top scores for its current offering in the categories of requirements analysis, reporting, security and solution architecture. MKS also earned the highest scores in the evaluation for corporate strategy and revenue growth. Get your complimentary copy of this independent research. White Papers An Innovative Approach to Managing Software Requirements Download this paper to learn about an innovative approach for authoring, capturing and tracing requirements throughout the project lifecycle. Learn how you can utilize best practices such as parallel development and reuse in relation to requirements, and how configuration management concepts such as versioning and baselining can be leveraged to achieve advanced requirements management capabilities. Real Reuse for Requirements The concept of reuse is a familiar notion within the software development realm, but less common when considered in the field of requirements management. Download this paper and learn how requirements reuse provides organizations with the unique ability to share a requirement across projects without absorbing unnecessary duplication of artifacts within a repository. This is a critical capability that can help you accelerate time to market and cuts development costs. Requirements-Based Testing with MKS Integrity By implementing a requirements-based testing methodology, ensuring complete requirements test coverage, organizations can increase efficiency, reduce the risk of failure, and improve overall software quality. Download this whitepaper and learn how MKS Integrity, a unified platform for application lifecycle management, can help to ensure that all project requirements have complete test planning and test execution coverage. See how you can create and manage the resolution of defects found during testing, and measure project readiness through reports and dashboards. Product Demo MKS Integrity for Requirements Management MKS Integrity for Requirements Management enables software engineering and IT organizations to address the primary causes of software project failures. It enables organizations to capture and validate software requirements, link them to downstream development and testing activities and to manage their completion through a unified process across the lifecycle. Watch this demonstration and see MKS Integrity's unique capabilities for requirements change management and requirements reuse, enabling you to increase agility and shorten time to market.