Most companies today recognize that the definition and management of requirements for software projects needs improving. Companies may realize that they have been achieving their goals without formalizing a Requirements Management Center of Excellence. A Center of Excellence (CoE) has a lot of responsibilities and serves as the critical hub of managing software requirements. Mr. Karczewski will present an overview of a Requirements Management Center of Excellence, covering benefits of establishing a CoE, Requirements Engineering phases and metrics, and what can be included in a CoE. Joel Karczewski, Area Vice President at Paychex, is responsible for Enterprise Business Solutions and has over 25 years of Information Technology development and operational experience. Joel joined Paychex in 2008 and is responsible for groups that manage application design, development and testing, user acceptance testing and software configuration and release processes. Prior to joining Paychex, Joel was a Principal at Vangard Group responsible for the development and implementation of systems for the Institutional Investment Division. Joel holds a MBA from LaSalle University and has earned his Project Management Professional (PMP) designation from the Project Management Institute.

1. Requirements
Management
Center of Excellence
“Achieving Goals Without Formalization”
2009 TM Project Management Consulting Services(Phyllis.Carroll.PMCS.gmail.com)

2. Overview
Center of Excellence (CoE) Characterization
Requirements Management CoE Benefits
CoE Pillars
Requirements Influence Mindmap
Pillar Benefits
Requirements Engineering Phases & Metrics
2

3. CoE Characterization
 Is a logical grouping of related skills or
disciplines
 A place where individuals can learn and
share knowledge
 An organizational unit that can be either
face-to-face or virtual
3

4. Requirements Management
CoE Benefits
 Bridge the gap that divides business and IT
 Matches resources to demand
 Participate in all strategic initiatives by providing expert
analysis resources
 Evaluate the impact of proposed changes on all areas of
the business and effectively allocate resources according
to business priorities.
 Improves efficiency
 Speeds time-to-market
 Reduces cycle times
 Enables reuse of resources
 Creates higher quality requirements
4

5. Best Practices
Metrics
Processes and Procedures
Enterprise Requirements Structure
Requirements Reuse
Integration with Testing
Baseline Strategy
Trace Strategy
Management
Change Management
Process Improvement
Requirements
Center of Excellence
Professional Development
Requirements Management Tool
Requirements Management Lifecycle
UI Prototyping
Requirements Management Governing Board
Usability Testing
Flow Diagramming

6. Requirements Influence Mindmap
Project
Definition/
Business Case
Change
Training Resources required Management
Input to Process
are defined
Scope
Used to develop
Used as baseline
User Training
of application
Verifies User’s Needs Prioritizes changes
have been met to application
Verifies coverage
Code Pain points are identified Business Unit
Development Used to write code
Requirements Improve or decrease Procedures
manual procedures
Used for
researching issues
Identifies actual
release inclusions
Verifies correct
Reviewed to implementation Planned in
learn application Release
Used to identify
scenarios to test
Application
Application
Release
Support
Management
Application
Testing

7. Benefits of using a
Requirements Management Tool
 Manage versions and baselines
 Facilitate impact analysis through tracing
 Store requirement attributes
 Integration with testing tool with
recognition of coverage
 Identify reusable requirements
7

8. Benefits of Prototyping
 Encourages early user participation and
involvement
 Enhances understanding of how an application
will work
 Promotes consistency in user interface design
 Early design work can lead to a more usable
product in a shorter period of time
 Can help sell management an idea for a new
product
8

9. Benefits of Usability Testing
 Reduces costs by being early in the SDLC
 Adapts to an agile environment
 Detects missing elements or design flaws
 UI prototypes are tested with users to insure a
design is:
• intuitive
• effective for the purpose
• easy to use
• easy to learn
• efficient to use
9

10. Benefits of a Trace Strategy
 Impact of a change is easier to analyze
 If a requirement can be traced forward to a
design artifact, it validates that the
requirement has been designed into the
system
 If a requirement can be traced to a test case,
it demonstrates that the requirement has
been verified through testing
10

11. Benefits of integrating with a
testing tool
 Test scripts may be developed quicker
 Testing coverage is recognized in the
Requirements Management Tool
 Verification that the software was coded
correctly– that it matches the
requirements
 Validation that the right software was
built – it is what the customer wants
11

12. Requirements Engineering Phases
The requirements engineering process consists of:
1. Requirements Elicitation – the process of identifying the
needs of the user
2. Requirements Analysis - the process of refining the
requirements to ensure that all stakeholders understand them
3. Requirements Specifications – the process of documenting
requirements in a consistent, accessible and reviewable way
4. Requirements Validation – the process of ensuring that the
requirements are correct and will satisfy customer needs
5. Requirements Management – the process of managing
changes and understanding the impacts of those changes
12

13. Metrics – why measure & pitfalls
Why…
 To assess your practice
 Understand where improvements are needed
Pitfalls…
 Difficult to collect the data
 Too many metrics defined resulting in
excessive overhead
 Metrics that are not simple – know the issue
that you are trying to improve
13

14. Best Practices
 Measure current data
 Start by implementing a small set of
measures
 Automate data collection if possible
14

15. Drivers of change
Incomplete or
insufficiently
detailed requirements
Requirements not specified –
Incorrect requirements
Enhancement
or failed to meet user’s needs
Change Request Written
Requirements specified
and is working as designed Requirements specified
but coded incorrectly
Requirements specified
but not coded
15

16. Root Causes and Recommendations
Recommendation:
Analyst knowledge
Identify training
opportunities
Recommendation: Ensure
Lack of input from business
participation of appropriate
unit
business unit reps
Lack of input from Recommendation: Identify
PRIMARY end user appropriate end user participants
Inadequate user
Recommendation: Improve user
involvement in
participation during design process
requirements development
16

17. Root Causes and Recommendations
Recommendation:
Requirements were not
Improve communication &
coded
testing coverage
Recommendation: Improve
Requirements were not
communication with software
communicated
engineers
Inadequate interaction with Recommendation: Identify improvements in the
software engineers design process and have a requirements review
before official turnover meeting
Recommendation: Identify improvements in
Inadequate task analysis
the design process and identify training
opportunities
17

18. Overall Cost Reduction
 The cost required to fix an error later in the
life cycle increases exponentially: it costs 5-10 times
more to repair errors during coding phase and between
100-200 times more during maintenance phase than
during the requirements phase [Moore, 2000; Wiegers,
1999].
 The more the time spent on the requirements
engineering process, the less time is required for the
whole development process since less time is spent on
rework.
18

19. Lifecycle Cost
19

20. Q&A
Thank You.
2009 TM Project Management Consulting Services(Phyllis.Carroll.PMCS.gmail.com)
20