Transcript MIT System Engineering Conference

Methods
for
Effective Requirements Development
Ivy Hooks
Compliance Automation Inc.
A Few Methods




Share the vision
Create operational concepts
Involve all stakeholders
Apply discipline and control to requirement
format
Have a Vision
Share that Vision
Else everyone picks their own vision
Vision
Needs, goals and objectives
Operational concepts for all life-cycle phases
Involving all stakeholders - early
Defining drivers and interfaces
Operational Concepts
A day in the life of
your product
All life-cycle phases
All Stakeholders
Manufacturing
Marketing
Users
Management
Testing
Reverse Engineer the Vision
Someone gives you requirements and no
vision – you invent the vision
You take it back to that someone and get
confirmation
Expect magic
Requirements
Are about communication
Apple
Basics of Good Requirements
Clear, concise, unambiguous
Grammatically correct
Positive statements
Needed
Verifiable
Attainable – technically, cost, schedule
Include rationale
Well organized
Words to watch for
Words that end in –ly or
–ize.
Etc., including but not limited
to
Support, accommodate, be
capable of, be able to
And/or
Sufficient, robust, userfriendly, easy to use,
adequate, maximize,
minimize, optimize, …
Forget what you learned in English 101
The system shall provide its own power
The system shall operate autonomously
The system shall have built-in-self test
Requirements are supposed to be boring
Remove Unwanted Implementation
The aircraft shall
have three engines.
The aircraft shall
meet the operation
requirements with a
single engine out.
Beware of Operations
The operator shall be
able to turn the
machine on or off
Don’t Allow Bad Requirements
Set up a gate
Define the rules
Don’t accept poor quality requirements
Use inspections to find requirement defects
early
Hold effective reviews
Reward good requirements
Frequent Response
BEFORE CLASS
What problem do you want to cover in the
class?
How do we deal with constantly changing
requirements?
AFTER CLASS
What problem do you see to implementing
what you have learned?
My manager won’t change, will just keep
doing things the same old way.
Why Johnny Can’t Write Requirements
He doesn’t know how
The schedule ignores the process
We need cultural change
True in 1990 and still true today
Solution to all problems
Reorganize
Buy tools
No time to do it right
Putting out fires is fun
Doing it right gets no respect
Enter the hero
Better Requirements = $$$$$ earned
Put process in place
Educate your people
Reward those who do it right the first time
Reap the rewards
References
Customer-Centered Products – Creating
Successful Products Through Smart
Requirement Management, Ivy Hooks
and Kristin Farry, AMACOM 2000
The Stuff Americans Are Made Of, Josh
Hammond and James Morrison,
Macmillan 1996
Information Ecology, Thomas H.
Davenport, Oxford 1997