Step 5: manage software requirements

Summary Today, the dependence on software in both economic and social life is growing rapidly, and software requirements are becoming increasingly complex. Software development has become a comprehensive team activity that spans skills, responsibilities, and time stages. Practice has proved that a good demand management process is crucial for reducing development costs and ensuring project success. Here is the demand management process we adopt. We hope to share with you, learn from each other and learn from each other. Leave a message! We divide the demand management process into three major stages: Discover, define, and demand maintenance. The content of this article is as follows: Part 1: roles involved in the software requirement management process Part 2: Overview of the software requirement management process. Part 3: specific activities in the Discover stage. Part 4: specific activities in the define stage. Part 5: specific activities in the demand maintenance stage. 　　1. Roles and responsibilities Role-Description Marketing personnel ---- responsible for all the work in the Discover stage, and help the development project manager quickly understand the business and customer at the beginning of the define stage Development Project Manager-coordinates all activities in the Discover stage, completes Requirement documents, and maintains scope matrix. Industry experts ---- provide industry consultation Senior team ---- guides the work in the Discover and define phases SEPG is responsible for Process training, process support, and process follow-up and improvement. 　　2. Overview of the software requirement management process The requirement can be defined as "conditions or features that must be met by the (being constructed) System ", some people also define "software functions required by a user to solve a problem or achieve a certain goal ". Demand management is a systematic solution for obtaining, organizing, and recording system requirements, as well as a process for customers and project teams to reach and maintain consistency with the changing system requirements. The purpose of requirement management is to establish a common understanding of customer requirements between the customer and the software project team that processes customer requirements. The goal of requirement management is: Control software requirements and establish baselines for software engineering and management. Align software plans, products and activities with software requirements. 　　Discover stage This phase aims to understand the customer's problems, analyze and determine whether the company is running projects in this industry. The customers here are not necessarily targeting an enterprise, but may be an industry. When conducting a specific survey, the goal is one or several typical users in the industry. Market personnel mainly understand the customer's problems, the customer's current situation, and the customer's business model, and then conduct feasibility analysis based on the company's business development direction and actual situation, prepares feasibility analysis reports. Then, we will initiate a feasibility analysis meeting and invite senior executives, industry experts, and stakeholders to discuss whether the company will launch the project. Once you decide to do this project, you will find interested users. After finding a suitable user, you can create a development team to define, design, and code the development system. 　　Define stage The purpose is to obtain a detailed requirement instruction document approved by the customer to guide later software development work. The Development Project Manager analyzes project objectives and success factors, identifies project risks and assumptions, as well as functional and technical requirements of the system through communication with the customer, finally, a set of detailed requirements documents are compiled, including the requirements of the overall system, the requirements of each subsystem, and data dictionary. To guide the development and tracking of the status and scope of demand implementation in the future, the project manager needs to establish the scope matrix of the Project as needed. Trace the in or out of each function at any time in scope matrix, and what stage is being developed. After all the requirement documents are completed, the project manager initiates and organizes the stage review meetings, and invites customers and industry experts to attend. The review includes all requirement documents and scope matrix. Once the review is passed, a plan for the next phase will be developed to prepare for entering the conceptual phase. 　　Demand maintenance stage The purpose is to manage changes to requirements. In the software development process, major or minor changes are inevitable. To manage demand changes more effectively, the requirements for demand changes, demand tracking, and demand configuration management are standardized here. The details of each item are described later. 　　3. Discover stage 3.1 understand customer needs Activities: communicate with customers to understand their original needs. It also analyzes the company's business opportunities, business objectives, customer and market needs, and business risks for developing this project. Responsibilities: The company's senior management is responsible for the specific implementation of market personnel. 3.2 understand customer status quo Activity: Evaluate the customer's current situation, such as informatization level, personnel's computer skill level, and business model. Responsibilities: The company's senior management is responsible for the specific implementation of market personnel. 3.3 understand the customer's business model Activity: Understand the customer's current business model, including the business roles and relationships. Responsibilities: The company's senior management is responsible for the specific implementation of market personnel. 3.4 prepare a feasibility analysis report Activity: evaluate the project based on the previous three items and determine whether to carry out the project. Responsibilities: The company's senior management is responsible for the specific implementation of market personnel Template: Based on the "Feasibility Analysis Report Template" provided. You can crop the template based on the actual content. 3.5 Decision on feasibility Activity: review the content of the feasibility analysis report and decide whether to carry out the project Participants: Market personnel (initiators and organizers), industry experts, and senior decision makers of the company. Main communication content: Feasibility Analysis Report Output: Feasibility Analysis Report for conclusion Responsibilities: Market personnel initiate, organize, host, and record meetings. Revise and record feasibility analysis reports. Note: The define stage can be started only after the project is launched. Before entering the define stage, the project manager needs to determine the overall plan of the project and the detailed plan of the define stage. 　　4. Define stage 4.1 Preparation Activity: Understand the output documents of the Discover stage and arrange customer representatives for communication Responsibilities: Market personnel help the development project manager understand the content in the feasibility analysis report and contact customer representatives. The development project manager understands the content in the feasibility report and prepares for subsequent work. 4.2 analyze the project objectives and success factors Activity: defines the key factors for project objectives and success through communication with customers Responsibilities: the development project manager is responsible for assisting the marketing personnel. 4.3 identify project risks and assumptions Activities: identifies project risks and assumptions through communication with customers, analyzes their impact on the project, and provides mitigation methods for risks. Responsibilities: the Development Project Manager completes the work, and the marketing personnel can assist. 4.4 obtain functional and technical requirements Activity: through communication with the customer, obtain functional and technical requirements, that is, to clarify the functional requirements of the system and what technologies are used Responsibilities: the development project manager is responsible for assisting the marketing personnel. 4.5 compile the Requirement Description document Activity: sort out the project requirement documents based on the communication results of the previous steps. The requirement document is not necessarily one, but several documents. But it must include the requirement information of the overall system, the requirement information of each subsystem, and the data dictionary. The company recommends that you separate the requirement information of the overall system from that of each subsystem into a document. In the requirements of the overall system, the requirements of each subsystem are described only for the subsystem itself. Responsibilities: the Development Project Manager completes. Template: sort out the template based on the "General System Requirement Description template", "subsystem Requirement Description template", and "data dictionary template" provided. You can crop the template based on the actual content. Key features of high-quality Requirement Description documents: Complete: the required information and requirements should not be omitted. It is difficult to find the missing information because it does not exist at all. If you know that some information is missing, using the TBD (to be determined) standard mark can highlight these defects. When you are building related parts of the product, you can solve all the defects from a given requirement. Consistency: consistency requirements do not conflict with other software requirements or high-level system (business) requirements. Modifyable: each requirement must be individually labeled and separated with other requirements for easy and clear access. Good organization makes requirements easy to modify, such as grouping related requirements, creating directory tables, indexing, and pre-and post-reference (photos ). 4.6 create scope Matrix Activity: create scope matrix based on system requirements to guide future development. All content of scope matrix must be faithful to the Requirement documents. If the content of the requirement document is insufficient to obtain the complete and detailed scope matrix, you can go back and complete the requirement document. If the content cannot be determined, you can mark it in scope matrix and wait for it to be determined later. Responsibilities: the Development Project Manager completes. Template: Based on the "template of scope matrix" provided. Based on the actual content. How to describe a function field in scope matrix: List all the detailed functional points, regardless of the process. Related functional limitations can also be included. Taboos are presented in lengthy descriptive languages. In this way, it is not easy to split functions. Each function point is described in a short sentence. If you need two sentences to describe a function, you can define it as two function points. 4.7 define stage review Activity: communicate the requirement content in the form of a meeting and review the requirement. Participants: Project Managers (initiators and organizers), industry experts, and customers Review content: Data Dictionary, Requirement Description of the overall system, Requirement Description of each subsystem, scope Matrix Output: Review notes. Review notes must be written in the template of quality review notes specified by the company. Responsibilities: The Project Manager initiates, organizes, and presides over the review meeting to record the meeting. Review notes after the meeting. Note: After the define stage is approved, you can enter the design stage. 　　5. Requirement Maintenance The key aspect of demand maintenance is demand change management. Demand changes are inevitable. How to manage software requirements in a controllable manner is of great significance for the smooth development of the project. For demand change management, we mainly use the demand change control process, demand tracking matrix, and demand configuration management methods. 5.1 change control process 5.2 requirement tracking Activity: Use scope matrix to track the implementation of each requirement and the status of the requirement implementation. Responsibilities: the development project manager is responsible for maintaining scope matrix. 5.3 requirement Configuration Management Activity: Save all versions of all required documents Responsibilities: each requirement document and upgrade document must be saved to the configuration management system. Requirements: All documents are stored in the configuration management system. Store data according to the specified directory. Each modified version of the file must be saved.

 

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