Short primer on requirements definition for IT and engineering projects. 1. The Case for Requirements 2. Types of Requirements 3. Requirements Gathering 4. The Requirement Statement

1. Lance McElhaney
LMcElh@Yahoo.com

2. I’ll go up and find out
what they want and the
rest of you start coding!

3. PROBABILITY
The Design Dilemma
TIME

4. Software Project Results
Failed
18 %
43 %
Challenged
Successful
39 %
Standish Group 2013

5. Top 10 Keys to Project Success
1. Executive Support
2. User Involvement
3. Clear Business Objectives
4. Emotional Maturity
5. Optimizing Scope
6. Agile Process
7. Project Management Expertise
8. Skilled Resources
9. Execution
10. Tools & Infrastructure
Standish Group 2013

6. Feature & Function Use
Rarely or
Never
50%
Often or
Always Used
20%
Sometimes
30%
Standish Group 2013

7. “The most important function
that the software builder
performs is the extraction and
refinement of the product
requirements. No other part of
the work so cripples the resulting
system if done wrong.”
-Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month

8. YOU ARE
ALREADY
DOING THIS!

9. The PMBOK Process
Project
Execution
Project
Initiation
Collect
Requirements
Project
Planning
Project
Closing
Project
Monitoring

10. PMBOK Project Scope Management
Define Scope
Validate Scope
Plan Scope
Management
Collect
Requirements
• Requirements
Documentation
• Requirements
Traceability
Matrix
Create WBS
Control Scope

11. Requirement Levels
Project Goals
Business
What Users Need
To KNOW and DO
User
System
•Functional
•Non-Functional
What Developers
Build

12. Use Cases
The user selects the Create Invoice menu item.
The system displays the Create Invoice screen.
The user selects a Customer, and enters a Begin Date and an
End Date.
The user selects the Create Invoice button.
The system displays all invoice entries for the selected
Customer with dates within the selected date range.
The user selects the Approve button.
The system displays an electronic invoice with a .pdf file type.

13. The “V” Model
Business
Requirements
User
Acceptance
Tests
Validate
User
Requirements
System and
Subsystem
Requirements
Component
Design
Verify
Integration &
System Tests
Verify
Unit Tests
Coding
Business
Results

14. Requirement Definition Methods
More Averaging
Group
Individual
Focus Groups
Surveys
Benchmarking
Interviews
SOP
Observation
User Manuals
Direct
More Filtering
Indirect

15. HOW DO WE WRITE
SMART
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Real, Traceable
REQUIREMENTS?

16. Examples
• The system shall maintain the tank TK1234 temperature at 5° C. during the HOLD phase.
• The system shall automatically close the tank TK1234 bottom valve.
• The system shall automatically close the tank TK1234 bottom valve when the tank level
reaches a certain limit.
• The system shall automatically close the tank TK1234 bottom valve when the tank level
is below the low alarm limit.
• The system shall produce a daily production report.
• The system shall have a maximum response time of 1 second.
• The system shall be available at all times.

17. Traceability