Requirement Engineering Concepts

System Development Methods - CT046-3-2, System Planning - Part 2

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Topic & Structure of the Lesson

• The lesson covers Requirement Engineering purpose and activities.
• It also covers Requirement Engineering techniques.
• Finally, it covers Project risk management.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain the purpose of requirement engineering and its activities.
• Describe the various requirement engineering techniques.
• Discuss the importance of project risk management.

Key Terms

• Requirement Engineering purpose and activities
• Requirement Engineering techniques
• Project risk management

Part 2

• The part details Requirement Engineering purpose and activities.
• It discusses Requirement Engineering techniques.
• Finally, it addresses Project risk management.

Requirement Engineering (RE)

• Requirement Engineering (RE) is a process of gathering, analyzing, and finalizing requirements for a project.
• Also known as Requirement Gathering, System Investigation.
• Requirements guide what the new information system should do to achieve objectives.
• RE involves high-level requirements (the overall system goal determined at initial planning) and low-level requirements (more detailed functions determined through gathering data from various sources).
• The output from these processes is the System Requirements Specification (SRS).

Requirement Engineering (RE): Purpose

• RE involves asking questions like WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW, and WHY.
• Each of these questions should be further explored by asking "why".
• This process helps understand procedures, tasks, locations, timings, and methods.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Main Activities

• Main activities include Requirement Elicitation.
• This involves collecting data about the old and new systems.
• Next is Requirement Compilation, which gathers and merges collected data.
• Lastly is Requirement Validation and Analysis, which involves refining collected data to only include important and achievable requirements.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Techniques

• Popular techniques include Interviewing, Questionnaires, Research, Observation, Document Review, and Sampling.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Interviews

• Interviews are essential fact-finding tools during the systems analysis phase.
• Interview preparation, conduct, documentation, and evaluation are crucial.
• Interviews should incorporate open-ended, closed-ended, and range-of-response questions.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Interview Examples

• Open-ended: What are users saying about the new system? How is this task performed? Why do you perform the task that way?
• Closed-ended: How many personal computers do you have in this department? Do you review reports before they are sent out?
• Range-of-response: On a scale of 1 to 10, how effective was your training?

Requirement Engineering (RE): Questionnaires/Surveys

• Questionnaires collect input from multiple people.
• They help gather data on various topics like workloads, reports, transactions, duties, difficulties, and opinions about efficiency improvements.
• Questionnaires should be brief, user-friendly, and use logical question sequencing.
• They should avoid leading questions and questions causing negative reactions.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Research

• Research can involve the internet, IT magazines, books, and industry trend information.
• Attending professional meetings and discussions can aid problem-solving.
• Site visits help observe systems in action in other environments.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Observation

• Observation adds insight into system procedures and verifies statements made in interviews.
• Plan observations with checklists documenting steps, documents, inputs, outputs, and processes.
• Analyze each form, record, and report. Determine the purpose of each piece of information.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Document Review

• Document review aids understanding of the current system's workflow.
• Obtain copies of current forms and operating documents, including blank and completed forms.
• Be aware that documentation might be outdated.

Requirement Engineering (RE): Sampling

• Research can encompass the internet, IT magazines, and books.
• Attending professional meetings, discussions, and seminars enhances problem-solving.
• Sampling involves selecting specific data points (like every tenth customer, a specified percentage of transactions from each zip code, or a random sample of 20 customers).
• This ensures geographic balance in surveys or analysis.

Project Risk Management

• Every IT project has risks that affect projects negatively.
• Risk management aims to identify, analyze, anticipate, and monitor risks to reduce their impact.
• Projects can fail due to poor risk management; this includes a lack of identifying, analyzing, planning, and monitoring of risks

Risk Management (continued)

• Step 1: Develop a Risk Management plan.
  • Analyze project scope, stakeholders, budget, and schedule.
  • Define roles, responsibilities, methods, and contingencies.
• Step 2: Identify the risks.
  • Determine risk likelihood, impact, description, cause, and responsible party.

Risk Management (continued)

• Step 3: Analyze the risks.
• Employ qualitative risk analysis (estimating probability and impact).
• Utilize quantitative risk analysis (quantifying impact using models, simulating different scenarios).

Risk Management (continued)

• Step 4: Create a risk response plan. Develop proactive strategies to anticipate and address risks.
• Step 5: Monitor risks. Ongoing tracking, detecting new risks and adjustments.

Risk Management Strategies

• Transfer risk (e.g., to a vendor).
• Avoid risk (find an alternate path to circumvent the risk).
• Reduce risk (mitigate to lower the effect).
• Accept risk (implement a solution despite anticipated consequences).

Summary

• Requirement Engineering (RE) gathers, analyzes, and finalizes project requirements.
• RE uses various techniques to gather data about the old and new systems.
• Analysts use different question types during RE.
• Risk management identifies, analyzes, anticipates, and monitors risks.
• Effective risk management plans, identifies risks, analyzes them, creates plans to respond, and monitors the risks.
• Strategies like risk transfers, avoidance, reduction, and acceptance are crucial for managing project risks.

End of Presentation

• Next session: System Analysis

Test your understanding of Requirement Engineering fundamentals with this quiz. Explore key concepts like high-level and low-level requirements, techniques used in the process, and essential activities involved. Perfect for students and professionals looking to reinforce their knowledge in this critical area of software development.