This document summarizes a case study on using requirements quality analysis tools in a railway industry project. It describes how the tools were used to analyze requirements documents, identify quality issues, and improve the requirements. A workshop was held where the tools were demonstrated and used to analyze existing requirements and develop quality metrics. The analysis found issues that were addressed by rewriting requirements. Overall, the case study showed that requirements quality analysis tools can successfully identify quality problems and support improving requirements documents.

1. Requirements Quality Analysis:
A successful case study in the Railway industry
CSD&M’16
Paris. December 13-14, 2016
José Fuentes (The REUSE Company)
Hugo-Guillermo Chalé-Góngora (Alstom)

2. 2
Contents
Introduction
The impact of poor quality in our projects
Requirements Quality Analysis
Practical case study
Goals, inputs and expected outputs
Tools benchmark
The PoC Process
PoC results
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

3. 3
The impact of poor quality

4. 4
The impact of poor quality projects
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

5. 5
Why Requirements Quality Analysis?
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study
Doing the right thing right (verification)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/french-railway-operator-sncf-orders-trains-too-big
http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/02/04/inenglish/1423052376_326956.html

6. 6
Requirements Quality
Analysis
FOCUS

7. 7
Why focusing on requirements quality: source of defects
Project Success Factors % of Responses
1. User Involvement 15.9%
2. Executive Management Support 13.9%
3. Clear Statement of Requirements 13.0%
4. Proper Planning 9.6%
5. Realistic Expectations 8.2%
6. Smaller Project Milestones 7.7%
7. Competent Staff 7.2%
8. Ownership 5.3%
9. Clear Vision & Objectives 2.9%
10. Hard-Working, Focused Staff 2.4%
Other 13.9%
+40% directly related with
requirements definition and
management
15.9%
13.0%
8.2 %
2.9 %
Based on requirements
(Source: CHAOS Report, 2004)
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

8. 8
Why Requirements Quality Analysis?
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study
Source : INCOSE SE Handbook V4.0. 2015
95%
85%
70%
Time
Cumulativepercentage
LifecylceCost
Operations
through
Disposal
100%
Production
and test
50%
8%
Design
15% 20%
Concept
Commited Costs
3-6x
500-1000x
20-100x
Development

9. 9
Systems and Requirements Engineering life-cycles
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study
CONOPS
Stakeholders
Requirements
System
Requirements
System
Design
Equipment
Requirements
Equipment
Design Equipment
Verification
System
Equipment
SystemVerification
Product
Product Verification
Requirements
Verification
Requirements
Verification
Requirements
Verification
Design
Validation
Design
Verification
Requirements
Validation

10. 10
Systems and Requirements Engineering life-cycles
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study
Elicitation Analysis Specification Validation
close gapsclarify
rewrite
re-evaluate
confirm and correct
Source: Karl Wiegers

11. 11
Practical Application at

12. 12
Quick Proof of Concept on Requirements Quality Improvement
OBJECTIVES
Reduce the impact of poor quality in our projects
Perform correctness, completeness and consistency analyses of requirements (individually and
collectively) to improve the quality of requirements specifications
Assess the computer-aided requirements authoring feature to accelerate the learning curve of new
practitioners (or improve the capability of current practitioners) in requirements development
GOAL
Exonerate engineers from format concerns (structure) and allow them to concentrate on content
(essence of requirements):technical data useful for design
Relieve engineers from repetitive and error-prone tasks
Allow time for collaboration and creativity
Improve the common understanding of the problem
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

13. 13
Also, a mean to improve current practices
External audits results
“… Requirements Characterization is not complete: Derived/uncovered requirements justification,
Contribution, Categories (technical vs non-technical),V&V Methods…
…V&V Plan is not complete: Verification activities, or agreed alternate practices (waivers) and
associated deliverables…”
CMMI for Development
Requirement Development process area – SG 3 Analyze andValidate Requirements
“… Analyze requirements to determine whether they satisfy the of higher level requirements.
Analyze requirements to ensure that they are complete, feasible, realizable, and verifiable…”
Verification process area – SG 2 Perform Peer Reviews
“… Establish and maintain checklists to ensure that the work products are reviewed
consistently...
Rules of construction , Completeness, Correctness…”
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

14. 14
Requirements Quality Analysis tool - Benchmark
Tool Acronym Vendor
DESIRe DES HOOD
Lexior LEX Cortim
Qualicen QCEN Qualicen
QVscribe QVS QRA
Requirements Assistant RA Sirius Requirements
Requirements Quality Suite RQS The REUSE Company
Semios SEM Prometil
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

15. 15
RQS – Requirements Quality Suite
The Requirements Quality Suite (RQS) intends to tackle requirements quality
management by offering a set of tools and processes
Automatic measurement of requirements quality metric
Support to Requirements Authoring
RQS models requirements quality metrics using the CCC approach (Correctness,
Consistency and Completeness)
Requirements Quality Analyzer
(RQA): to setup, check and manage the
quality of a requirements specification
Requirement AuthoringTool (RAT):
to assist authors while they are creating or
editing requirements
Knowledge Manager (KM): to manage
knowledge around a requirements
specification: the ontology it is based on,
the structure of the requirements to be
used in the project, the communication
between authors and domain architects
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

16. 16
Requirements quality metrics: CCC Approach
CCC – Correctness, Consistency and Completeness
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study
Correctness
Consistency
Requirements
quality
Completeness
Individual requirements
Sets of requirementsSets of requirements

17. 17
One-Week
Workshop
Requirements
Quality
Organizational
Knowledge
Analysis
RQS Tools
Training
One-Week
Use Case definition
Documents Analysis:
Standards, Glossaries and
System Documents
Quality Rules
Definition
Two-Week
Requirements Quality
Analysis
Requirements
Quality
Analysis
Requirements
Improvement:
Rephrasing
Two-Week
Knowledge Base
Elaboration
Reuse
Organizational
Know-How
Writing Good
Requirements for
Alstom: Patterns
and Rules
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6
2 Alstom Engineers
2TRC Consultant
2 Alstom Engineers
2TRC Consultant
2 Alstom Engineers
2TRC Consultant
2 Alstom Engineers
2TRC Consultant
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study
Proof of Concepts:Work Methodology

18. 18
Final Quality
Results
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study
Quality Metrics
And
Knowledge
Alstom
Knowledge Base
V1
Alstom Original
Reqs. Specification
Alstom Original
Reqs. Specification
INCOSE + TRC
Quality Results
Default Quality Assessment
INCOSE
TRC
ISO29148
Quality Assessment with
Alstom White Belt
Organization
KB V1
Alstom
Quality Results
Alstom Original
Reqs. Specification
SPECIFICATION
UPDATE
Alstom
Quality Results
Organization
KB V1
Alstom
Knowledge Base
V2
Alstom Original
Reqs. Specification
Alstom Improved
Reqs.
Specification
Proof of Concepts:Work Process

19. 19
Conclusion and main achievements
Requirements Quality Analysis - A successful case study

20. http://www.reusecompany.com
@ReuseCompany
contact@reusecompany.com
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Innovation Center
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SPAIN – EU
Tel: (+34) 912 17 25 96
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