Chapter - 5

Understanding Requirements
Unit II

Introduction
Definition : The broad spectrum of tasks and techniques that lead to an understanding of requirements is called Requirement Engineering. Why it is important? : Designing and building an elegant computer program that solves wrong problem serves no ones needs. Thats why its important to understand what the customer wants before you begin to design and build a computer based system.

 It is a major software engineering action that begins during the communication activity and continues into modeling activity. Requirement Engineering builds a bridge to design and construction. Requirement engineering provides the appropriate mechanism for understanding what the customer wants, analyzing need, assessing feasibility, negotiating a reasonable solution, specifying the solution unambiguously, validating the specification and managing the requirements as they are transformed into operational system.

Requirement engineering tasks

1. Inception: The intent is to establish a basic understanding of a problem, the people who want a solution, the nature of the solution that is desired, and the effectiveness of the preliminary communication and collaboration between the customers and the developer.

2. Elicitation : It seems simple enough ask the customer, the user, and other what the objective for the system are, what is to be accomplished etc. But it isnt simple.

A number of problems that are encountered as elicitation occurs:

a) Problem of scope:The boundary of the system is ill-defined or the customer/ users specify unnecessary technical details that may confuse

b) Problem of understanding :- customer/ users are not completely sure of what is needed, do not have full understanding of the problem domain, have trouble communicating needs to the s.w engineer, , omit important information, specify ambiguous requirements

c) Problem of volatility :- the requirements change over time

3. Elaboration: The information obtained from the customer during the pervious two stages is expanded and refined during elaboration.

It focuses on developing a refined technical model that identifies various aspects of s.w functions, behavior and information.
Elaboration is driven by the creation and refinement of user scenario that describe how the end user will interact with system.

4. Negotiation : It isnt unusual for customers and users to ask for more than can be achieved, given limited business resources. Customers, users and other stakeholders are asked to rank requirements and then discuss conflicts in priority. Risk associated with each requirement are identified and analyzed. Using iterative approach , requirements are eliminated, combined, modified so that each party achieve some measures of satisfaction.

5. Specification : A specification can be a written document, a set of graphical models, a formal mathematical model, a collection of usage scenario, a prototype, or any combination of these. It describes the functions and performance of the computer based system and the constraints that will govern its development.

6. Validation : Consequences of the requirement engineering are assessed for quality. Requirement validation examines he specification to ensure that all software requirements have been stated unambiguously, that inconsistencies, omission, and error have been detected and corrected.

The review team includes s.w engineers, customers, users, and other stake holders who examine the specification looking for errors in contents or interpretations, missing information etc.

7. Requirement management : It is a set of activities that helps the project team identify, control, and track requirements and changes to requirements at any time as the project proceeds. Features traceability table:- show how the requirements relate to important customer observable system.

 Source traceability table:- identifies the source of each requirements Dependency traceability table:- indicates how requirements are related to one another.
Subsystem traceability table:categorize requirements by the subsystem that they govern. Interface traceability table:- shows how requirements are related to internal and external system interfaces.

Establishing The Ground Work

The steps required to establish the groundwork for understanding of software requirements (1) Identifying the stakeholders : Stakeholder means anyone who benefits in a direct or indirect way from the system which is being developed.

Every stakeholder has different view of the system, achieves benefits when the system is successfully developed, and is open to different risks if the development effort should fail.

2) Recognizing multiple viewpoints Because of many stakeholders, the requirements of the system will be explored from many different points of view. (if possible give example) As information is collected from many viewpoints, it can be inconsistent or conflicting. The job of requirement engineer is to categorize all stakeholder information in way that will allow

decision maker to choose an internally consistent set of requirements for the system.

3) Working towards collaboration : The job of the requirement engineer is to identify areas of commonality and areas of conflict / inconsistency.

Collaboration does not mean that requirements are defined by committee. Stakeholder collaborate by providing their view of requirements, but a strong project champion may make the final decision about which requirements make the cut.

4) Asking the first questions:Questions in 3 different sets (1) Context free questions focuses on the customers and stakeholders, the overall proj. goals. For eg. a. Who is behind the request for this work? b. Who will use the solution? c. What will be the economic benefit of a successful solution? d. Is there another source for the solution that one needs? (2) Allow the customer to voice his or her perceptions about a solution:

For eg. a. How would you characterize good output that would be generated by a successful solution? b. What problem will this solution address? c. Can you show the business environment in which the solution will be used? d. Will special performance issues or constraints affect the way the solution is approached?

(3) Focuses on the effectiveness of the communication activity Meta-Questions For eg. a. Are you the right person to answer these questions? Are your answers official? b. Are my ques. relevant to the prob. that you have? c. Am I asking too many questions? d. Can anyone else provide additional info.? e. Should I be asking you anything else?

Eliciting requirements
Collaborative requirement gathering

Team of stakeholders and developers work together to identify the problem, propose elements of solution, negotiate different approaches, and specify preliminarily set of solution requirements. Guidelines :1) Meeting are conducted and attended by both s.w engineers and customers.

2)Rules for preparation and participation are established.

3)An agenda is suggested that formal enough to cover all important points but informal enough to encourage the free flow of ideas. 4)A facilitator control the meeting.

5)A definition mechanism is used. ( can be work sheet, flip charts , wall stickers etc.)

 The goal is to identify the problem, propose elements of solution, negotiate different approaches, and specify preliminarily set of solution requirements.
Out of the initial meetings, the stakeholders write a one-or-two page product request. A meeting place, time and date are selected and a facilitator is chosen. The product request is distributed to all the attendees before the meeting date.

 Each attendee is asked to make a list of objects that are part of the environment that surrounds the system, other objects that are to be produced by the system, and the objects that are used by the system to perform its functions. In addition, each attendee is asked to list services that manipulate or interact with the objects.

Then list of constraints and performance criteria are also developed.

 As the requirement gathering meeting begins, the first topic of the discussion is the need and justification for the new product. Everyone should agree that the product is justified. Once the agreement has been established , each participant presents his list. Then a combined list is created for one topic area.

 It eliminates redundant data, adds new idea but does not delete anything. After combined lists for all topic areas ( objects, services, constraints , performance) have been created , the facilitator coordinates the discussion. The objective is to develop a consensus list of objects, services, constraints, and performance for the system to be built. An object or service described on a list will

require further explanation. To accomplish this, stakeholder develop mini-specification for entries on list. Mini-specification is an elaboration of an object or service.
The mini-specification are presented to all stakeholders for discussion. Addition, deletions, and further elaboration are made.

In some cases, the development of mini-specs will uncover new objects, services, constraints, or performance requirements that will be added to the original lists.

 During all discussion, the team may arise an issue that can not be resolved during the meeting. An issue list is maintained so that these ideas will be acted on later.

Quality Function Deployment QFD is a technique that translates the needs of the customer into technical requirements for s.w. It identifies three types of requirements : 1) Normal:- It reflects objectives and goals stated by customer. If these requirements are present , the customer is satisfied. (graphical displays, specific system functions etc.)

2) Expected:- These requirements are implicit to the product or system and may be so fundamental that the customer does not explicitly state them. Their absence will cause dissatisfaction. Ex: ease of software installation. 3) Exciting:- It reflects features that go beyond the customers expectations and prove to be very satisfying when present. Ex: multiple touch screen. QFD uses customer interviews and observation, surveys, and examination of historical data.

 These data are then translated into a table of requirements called the Customer Voice Table that is reviewed with the customer and other stakeholders.

A variety of diagrams, matrices, and evolution methods are then used to extract expected requirements and to attempt to derive exciting requirements.

User Scenarios As the requirements are gathered , an overall vision of system features and functions begins to materialize.

Developers and users can create a set of scenarios that identify a thread of usage for the system to be constructed.
The scenarios are often called use cases.

Elicitation Work Product

For most systems, the work product includes: Statement of need and feasibility Statement of scope for product / system List of customers, users and other stakeholders who participated in requirements elicitation. Description of systems technical environment.

 A list of requirements and constraints A set of usage scenario

Any prototype developed

Developing Use Cases

The use case describes the systems behavior under various conditions as the system responds to a request from one of its stakeholders. The first step in writing a use case is to define the set of actors that will be involved in the story. An actor is anything that communicates with the system or product and it is external to the system itself.

Because requirement elicitation is an evolutionary activity, not all actors are identified during the first iteration.

Primary actors are identified during first iteration and secondary actors as more is learned about the system.
Primary actors interact to achieve required system function and derive the intended benefit from the system. Secondary actors support the system so that primary actors can do their work.

Once actors have been identified, use cases can be developed. A number of questions that should be answered by a use case : Who is the primary actor, the secondary actor (s)? What are the actors goal? What variations in the actors interaction are possible?

Building The Requirement Model

The intent of the analysis model is to provide a description of the required informational, functional, and behavioral domains for a computer-based system. As the requirements model evolves, certain elements will become relatively stable, providing a solid foundation for the design task that follows. Other elements of the model may be more volatile, indicating that stakeholders do not yet understand requirements for the system.

Elements Of The Requirement Model

Scenario Based Elements Scenario-based elements of requirement model are often the first part of the model that is developed. As such, they serve as input for the creation of the other modeling elements. Class-based Elements Each usage scenario implies a set of objects that are manipulated as an actor interacts with the system. These objects are categorized into classes- a collection of things that have similar attributes and common behavior.

 Behavioral Elements The state diagram is one method for representing the behavior of a system. A state is any externally observable mode of behavior. In addition, state diagram indicates actions taken as a consequence of a particular event.

Flow-oriented Elements Information is transformed as it flows through a computer based system. The system accepts input in a variety of forms, applies functions to transform it, and produces the output in a variety of form.

Analysis Patterns
Certain problems reoccur across all projects within a specific application domain. The analysis patterns suggest solution within the application domain that can be reused when modeling many applications. Analysis patterns are integrated into the analysis model by reference to the pattern name. They are also stored in a repository so that requirements engineers can use search facilities to find and apply them.

Negotiating Requirements
The intent of the negotiation is to develop a project plan that meets stakeholders needs while at the same time reflecting the real-world constraints (e.g. time, people, budget) that have been placed on the software team. The best negotiations strive for a win-win result. That is stakeholders win by getting the system or product that satisfies the majority of their needs and software team win by working to realistic and achievable budgets and deadlines. Set of activities defined at the beginning of each s.w process iteration by Boehm:-

Set of negotiation activities at the beginning of each software process iteration by Bohem :1. Identification of the system or subsystems key stakeholders. 2. Determination condition. of the stakeholders win

3. Negotiation of the stakeholders win conditions to reconcile them into a set of win-win conditions for all concerned.

Validating Requirements
As each element of the requirements model is created, it is examined for inconsistency, omissions, and ambiguity. A review of requirement model addresses a set of questions. Questions should be asked and answered to ensure that the requirements model is an accurate reflection of customer need and that it provides solid foundation for design.