Page 34 - Software and Systems Requirements Engineering in Practice

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C h a p t e r 1 : I I n t r o d u c t i o n 7 7
accountants and attorneys may be unavailable. Schedules cannot be
defined unless the experts are available during requirements
development.
All Stakeholders Are Identified
All the relevant stakeholders must be identified if requirements are to
be properly defined and prioritized. The later key requirements are
identified during the project, the greater the risk that major changes
to the in-progress implementation will be necessary. Furthermore,
the success of a product may be jeopardized by failure to validate key
requirements.
The Customer Is Properly Managed
Customer management includes rapid feedback during prototyping,
minimizing the number of points of contact between project staff and
stakeholders, and maintaining strict control of feature change
requests. It also includes using good techniques to elicit product
features that are correct and unambiguous.
Progress and Quality Indicators Are Defined
The CMMI has a measurement and analysis practice area that
overlaps with both requirements development and requirements
management. Sometimes, a methodology (such as the Rational
Unified Process [RUP] techniques for capturing text use cases)
doesn’t include progress or work product quality measures. These
indicators must be defined in advance, or project management will
find it difficult to gauge project progress and make appropriate
corrections.
The RE Tools Increase Productivity and Quality
Any software tools used must enable a process (increasing
productivity and CMMI compliance), rather than hinder it. Positive
outcomes may require tool integration, customization, or, in rare
cases where there is a justifiable cost benefit, creating a new tool
from scratch.

The Core Project Team Is Full Time and Reports
into a Single Chain of Command
Studies have shown that a full-time core team is essential to the
success of a large project [Ebert 2005]. Without the continuity provided
by a committed full-time core of people, issues may “fall through the
cracks” or not show up until problems are revealed at integration
testing time.