Main problems when working with requirements
Problem #5. Wrong tool
In order to:
maintain a requirements database,
be able to perform requirements configuration management and
formal requirements change management,
ensure traceability of requirements throughout the hierarchy of their decomposition, as well as
traceability to test methods and results (verification and validation),
exercise control over the processing of requirements at different stages of their existence
it is necessary to use a software tool – a requirements engineering tool.
Of course, such a tool is needed when an organization adopts and implements the requirements engineering methodology in the form in which it currently operates throughout the world. In this methodology, requirements management is not document-oriented but object-oriented, and each requirement is a unique object in the database, with its own attributes and relationships.
Although there are many conversations on this topic in a variety of development teams, and employees of different organizations demonstrate obvious understanding and interest in new (for us) approaches, the trend towards the transition from Terms of Reference documents to requirements databases is expressed only where it is obvious in the manner required by the Customer. The aviation industry is moving to new ways of operating as required by aviation standards. The nuclear and space industries focus on foreign customers and projects with foreign co-executors.
The use of an approach in which the technical specification or specification is present in the project as a document is increasingly becoming a problem. And this problem slows down the development of the entire design process. With a document-oriented approach, such basic functions of requirements engineering methodology as attribute application, hierarchical and version traceability, end-to-end tracing, and change impact tracking are all either impossible or unacceptably labor-intensive.
Using the right tool solves this problem, and when combined with the implementation of requirements engineering methodology, training and knowledge management of the organization, it solves almost all requirements management problems.
Part 6. Wrong way to document
