Methods for Effective Requirements Development Ivy Hooks Compliance

Methods for Effective Requirements Development Ivy Hooks Compliance Automation Inc.

A Few Methods ö ö Share the vision Create operational concepts Involve all stakeholders Apply discipline and control to requirement format

Have a Vision Share that Vision

Else everyone picks their own vision

Vision ö Needs, goals and objectives ö Operational concepts for all life-cycle phases ö Involving all stakeholders - early ö Defining drivers and interfaces

Operational Concepts ö A day in the life of your product

All life-cycle phases

All Stakeholders Manufacturing Marketing Users Management Testing

Reverse Engineer the Vision ö Someone gives you requirements and no vision – you invent the vision ö You take it back to that someone and get confirmation ö Expect magic

Requirements ö Are about communication Apple

Basics of Good Requirements ö Clear, concise, unambiguous ö Grammatically correct ö Positive statements ö Needed ö Verifiable ö Attainable – technically, cost, schedule ö Include rationale ö Well organized

Words to watch for ö Words that end in –ly or –ize. ö Etc. , including but not limited to ö Support, accommodate, be capable of, be able to ö And/or ö Sufficient, robust, userfriendly, easy to use, adequate, maximize, minimize, optimize, …

Forget what you learned in English 101 ö The system shall provide its own power ö The system shall operate autonomously ö The system shall have built-in-self test Requirements are supposed to be boring

Remove Unwanted Implementation ö The aircraft shall have three engines. WH Y? ö The aircraft shall meet the operation requirements with a single engine out. Wh wa at do ver nt to you ify?

Beware of Operations The operator shall be able to turn the machine on or off

Don’t Allow Bad Requirements ö Set up a gate ö Define the rules ö Don’t accept poor quality requirements ö Use inspections to find requirement defects early ö Hold effective reviews ö Reward good requirements

Frequent Response BEFORE CLASS What problem do you want to cover in the class? How do we deal with constantly changing requirements? AFTER CLASS What problem do you see to implementing what you have learned? My manager won’t change, will just keep doing things the same old way.

Why Johnny Can’t Write Requirements ö He doesn’t know how ö The schedule ignores the process ö We need cultural change True in 1990 and still true today

Solution to all problems Reorganize Buy tools

No time to do it right Putting out fires is fun Doing it right gets no respect

Enter the hero

Better Requirements = $$$$$ earned ö Put process in place ö Educate your people ö Reward those who do it right the first time ö Reap the rewards

References Customer-Centered Products – Creating Successful Products Through Smart Requirement Management, Ivy Hooks and Kristin Farry, AMACOM 2000 The Stuff Americans Are Made Of, Josh Hammond and James Morrison, Macmillan 1996 Information Ecology, Thomas H. Davenport, Oxford 1997