Requirements

Engineering
 Overview
• Describe requirement engineering activities
and processes.
• Look into techniques, problems, challenges of:
– Feasibility Studies
– Requirements elicitation
– Requirement specification
– Requirements Validation
– Requirements management and evolution
 Importance of Requirements
• Making design decisions without understanding
all the constraints on the system to be developed
results in a system which fails to meet customer’s
expectations
• Costs of correcting errors increases as the design
process advances.
• An error detected in the maintenance phase is 20
times as costly to fix as an error detected in the
coding stage.
Cumulative effects of error
 The Basics
• A requirement mandates that something be
accomplished, transformed, produced or
provided
• Requirements engineering is the discipline
concerned with understanding the externally
imposed conditions on a proposed computer
system, determining what capabilities will meet
these imposed conditions and and documenting
those capabilities as the software requirements
for the computer system.
Requirements Engineering Process
• The processes used for RE vary widely
depending on the application domain, the
people involved and the organisation
developing the requirements
R e q u ir e m e n ts E n g in e e r in g

R e q u ir e m e n t s E l i c i t a t i o n R e q u i r e m e n t s A n a l y s is

R e q u ir e m e n t s S p e c ific a t io n R e q u i r e m e n t s V e r i f ic a t i o n

R e q u ir e m e n t s M a n a g e m e n t
 Requirements Engineering Process
• Requirements elicitation : The process through which
clients and developers review, articulate and understand
the needs of the clients and the constraints on the
software
• requires involvement with the client, domain experts,
and end-users in order to establish an the client’s needs
and the constraints on the system. Here we use
techniques such as: (1) Interviews, (2) Questionnaires,
(3) Focus groups, (4) Apprenticing, and (5) modelling.
 Requirements Engineering Process
• Requirements Analysis : The process of analysing the
needs of the clients in order to arrive at a definition of
the requirements
• aims to deepen our understanding of the constraints
and client needs
• Requirements Specification : The process by which a
document is developed which clearly communicates the
requirements.
• The requirements are captured, or expressed, or
articulated, in a software requirements specification.
 Requirements Engineering Process
• Requirements Validation : The process of ensuring that
the requirements and the Software Requirements
Specification are in compliance with the needs of the
clients and the system
• techniques here include (1) reviews, inspections and
walkthroughs of requirements, and (2)prototyping.
• Requirements Management and evolution : The
planning and controlling of the requirements
engineering processes. Requirements specification
should evolve with time.
Feasibility Study
 Feasibility
• Feasibility studies aim to objectively and rationally
– Uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the existing
business or proposed venture
– Opportunities and threats as presented by
the environment.
– The resources required to carry through.
– Ultimately the prospects for success of the proposition
• In its simplest term, the two criteria to judge
feasibility are cost required and value to be attained. 
 Types of Feasibility
• The assessment is based on an outline design of
system requirements in terms of Input, Processes,
Output, Fields, Programs, and Procedures.
• Technological feasibility
– carried out to determine whether the company has the
capability, in terms of software, hardware, personnel and
expertise, to handle the completion of the project
– when writing a feasibility report, the following should be
taken to consideration:
• A brief description of the business
• The part of the business being examined
• The human and economic factor
• The possible solutions to the problems
 Types of Feasibility
• Economic analysis
used method for evaluating the effectiveness of a new system. More
commonly known as cost/benefit analysis, the procedure is to determine the
benefits and savings that are expected from a candidate system and compare
them with costs. If benefits outweigh costs, then the decision is made to
design and implement the system.
Cost-based study:
It is important to identify cost and benefit factors, which can be categorized
as follows:
1. Development costs
2. Operating costs.
This is an analysis of the costs to be incurred in the system and the benefits
derivable out of the system.
Time-based study:
This is an analysis of the time required to achieve a return on investments.
The future value of a project is also a factor.
 Types of Feasibility
• Legal feasibility
Determines whether the proposed system conflicts with legal
requirements, e.g. data processing system must comply with the local
Data Protection Acts.
• Operational feasibility
Operational feasibility is a measure of how well a proposed system solves
the problems, and takes advantage of the opportunities identified during
scope definition and how it satisfies the requirements identified in the
requirements analysis phase of system development.
• Schedule feasibility
A project will fail if it takes too long to be completed before it is useful.
Typically this means estimating how long the system will take to develop,
and if it can be completed in a given time period using some methods
like payback period. Schedule feasibility is a measure of how reasonable
the project timetable is. You need to determine whether the deadlines are
mandatory or desirable.
 Types of Feasibility
• Financial feasibility
In case of a new project, financial viability can be judged on the
following parameters:
– Total estimated cost of the project
– Financing of the project in terms of its capital structure, debt equity ratio and
promoter's share of total cost
– Existing investment by the promoter in any other business
– Projected cash flow and profitability

• Other feasibility factors:

– Market and real estate feasibility
– Resource feasibility
– Cultural feasibility
Requirements Elicitation
 Elicitation
• Requirements Elicitation is the process of discovering the
requirements for a system by communication with
customers, system users and others who have a stake in the
system development.
Challenges of Requirements
Elicitation
• The “Yes, But” syndrome

• The Undiscovered Ruins

• “User and Developer” syndrome

• “The sins of your predecessors”

 The “Yes, But” syndrome
• First time users see the system the first reaction is
either, “wow this is so cool” or “Yes, but, hmmmmm,
now that I see it, what about this…? Wouldn’t it be
nice …?

• Anticipate that there will be “yes, buts” and add time

and resources to plan for feedback.

• Tends to be User Interface centric, these tend to be

the touch points of the system by the users.
 The “Undiscovered Ruins”
syndrome
Teams struggle with determining when they are
done with requirements elicitation.

– Is done when all the requirements are elicited or

have they found at least enough?

– Like asking an archeologist “how many

undiscovered ruins are there?”
 The “User and the developer”
syndrome
Characteristic Response
• Users do not know what • Recognize and appreciate
they want, or they know the user as domain experts;
what they want but cannot try different techniques.
articulate it. • Provide alternative
• Users think they know elicitation techniques
what they want until earlier; storyboard, role
developers give them what playing, prototypes, and so
they said they wanted. on.
• Analysts think they • Put the analyst in the users
understand user problems place. Try role playing for
better than users do. an hour or a day.
 The “living with the sins of your
predecessors” syndrome
• Like it or not your users (marketing) and developers
remember what happened in the past.

– Quality programs that promised things would be different.

– The last project where requirements were vague and/or
were delivered short of expectations.

• Need to build trust, slowly. Do not over commit to features,

schedule, or budget.

• Build success by delivering highest priority features early in

the process.
 The Requirements Elicitation
techniques
• Interviewing and questionnaires
• Requirements workshops
• Braining Storming and idea reduction
• Use Cases
• Role Playing
• Prototyping

EX:
Summary
 Interview : Context Free Question
• Goal is to prevent prejudicing the user’s response to the
questions.
• Examples:

– Who is the user?

– Who is the customer?
– Are their needs different?
– Where else can a solution to this problem be found?

• Context-free questions

• After context-free questions are asked, suggested solutions

can be explored.
 Interview : Show Time
• Establish Customer or User Profile
• Assessing the Problem
• Understanding the User Environment
• Recap the Understanding
• Analyst’s Inputs on Customer’s Problems
• Assessing Your Solution (if applicable)
 Technique : Requirement
workshop
• It gathers all key stakeholders together for a short
but intensely focused period.

• The use of an outside facilitator experienced in

requirements management can ensure the
success of the workshop.

• Brainstorming is the most important part of the

workshop.
 Technique : Role Playing – variant
on use cases
• Role playing allows stakeholders to experience the
user’s world from the user’s perspective.

• A scripted walkthrough may replace role playing in

some situations, with the script becoming a live
storyboard.

(Class-Responsibility-Collaboration (CRC) cards, often

used in object-oriented analysis, are a derivative of
role playing.)
Requirements Analysis & Specification
 Analysis & Specification
• Requirements analysis :
The process of studying and analysing the
customer and the user/stakeholder needs to arrive
at a definition of software requirements
• Requirements Specification:
o A document that clearly and precisely describes
essential requirements of software and external
interfaces (functions, performance, quality etc.)
o each requirement is specified such that its
achievement is capable of being verified by a
prescribed method like inspection, test.
 Analysis of Elicitation Results
Analysis of the results of elicitation process helps to
create a better vision of the product and its
specification by:
• Explaining the problem statement better
• Marketing group establishes positioning of the
product
• Stakeholder and user summaries
o user is special case of stakeholder
o identify stakeholder w.r.t development
o identify stakeholder w.r.t system
 Requirement Specification
• The precision to which Requirements are
specified is a function of
• Expertise of developers
• Knowledge developers and testers have of the
domain – the more they know, the less specific the
specification needs to be
• Access to a domain representative
• For example, in xp, requirements may be specified in
less detail but there is a customer representative on site
daily.
 Requirements Perspectives
• User requirements
– Statements in natural language plus diagrams of the
services the system provides and its operational
constraints. Written for customers.
• System requirements
– A structured document setting out detailed
descriptions of the system’s functions, services and
operational constraints. Defines what should be
implemented so may be part of a contract between
client and contractor.
 Types of Requirements
• Functional requirements :
Statements of services, how the system should react to
particular inputs, what functionalities is to be provided.
Functional requirements are not concerned with how these
functions are to be achieved, just what is to be achieved.
• Non – functional requirements:
deals with attributes, or properties, of the software
rather than functions. We include here aspects of the
software such as its performance, its usability, its reliability, any
safety aspects and a range of other attributes.
• Domain Requirements:
Requirements of the application domain of the system,
reflect characteristics of that domain.
 Requirements Characteristics
• Unambiguous
• Testable (verifiable)
• Clear (Concise, terse, simple, precise)
• Correct
• Understandable
• Feasible
• Independent
• Atomic
• Necessary
• Implementation – free (abstract)
 Requirements Characteristics
Besides the criteria for individual
requirements, 3 criteria should apply to the
set of requirements as a whole:
• Consistent
• Non redundant
• Complete
 The Output
A Software Requirements Specification (SRS) – A formal
Document as the OUTPUT of the Specification stage.

it is a complete description of the behavior of a system to be

developed.

INCLUDES:
Functional Requirements
Non- Functional Requirements
Constraints
Design Strategy
Quality and Standards
Architecture
Development Methodology
Sequence Diagram
ATM Database

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Card number

Card OK
PIN request
PIN
Option menu Validate card

<<exception>>
invalid card

Withdraw request Balance request

Balance
Amount request
Handle request
Amount
Debit (amount)

<<exception>> Debit response

insufficient cash

Card

Card removed
Complete
Cash transaction

Cash removed
Receipt
Activity Diagram
Data Flow Diagram
Validation
 Requirements Validation
Validation: ensures that the software being developed will satisfy it
stakeholders
– Requirements Validation checks the software 
requirements specification against stakeholders 
goals and requirements

Verification:
 ensures that each step followed in the process of building the soft
ware yields the right products
– Requirements Verification checks the consistency of 
the software requirements specification artifacts and other 
Software development products (design, implementation, ...) again
st the specification
Typical Requirements V&V
approaches
• Tracing approaches
• Prototyping
• Testing
• User manual writing 
• Formal validation
• Reviews and inspections
• Walkthroughs
• Formal inspections
• Checklists
Requirements Management and Evolution
 Definition
Requirements management is the process of documenting, 
analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and
then controlling change and communicating to relevant
stakeholders.

It is a continuous process throughout a project.

A requirement is a capability to which a project outcome

(product or service) should conform.
Requirements Pyramid
 CASE Tools
IBM Rational DOORS®
Requirements management, traceability, and impact analysis
capabilities for more formal, rigorous requirements engineering
purposes, primarily suited to organizations creating manufactured
systems and products

IBM Rational Requirements Composer

Helps teams to define requirements more effectively and manage them
efficiently across the project lifecycle to gain better business outcomes
through light-weight requirements practices

IBM Rational RequisitePro®

Requirements management, traceability, and impact analysis
capabilities for project teams, primarily suited to organizations creating
application software 
 Software Evolution
• The priority of requirements from different
viewpoints changes during the development
process.
• System customers may specify requirements
from a business perspective that conflict with
end-user requirements.
• The business and technical environment of the
system changes during its development.
 Classification for changing
requirement
• Enduring requirements. Stable requirements
derived from the core activity of the customer
organisation.

• Volatile requirements. Requirements which

change during development or when the
system is in use.
 Classification for changing
requirement
• Enduring requirements. Stable requirements
derived from the core activity of the customer
organisation.

• Volatile requirements. Requirements which

change during development or when the
system is in use.
 Requirements Traceability

Requirements traceability is concerned with documenting the

life of a requirement.

It should be possible to trace back to the origin of each

requirement
and
Every change made to the requirement should therefore be
documented in order to achieve traceability.

Even the use of the requirement after the implemented features

have been deployed and used should be traceable[4].