req_elicitation_Msit2_SE

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Eliciting Requirements

 

The requirement elicitation combines the elements of problem solving ,elaboration, negotiation and specification. The activities which are to be followed are :

1. Collaborative Requirement Gathering
2. Quality function Development
3. User scenarios identification
4. Elicitation work product completion

 

1. Collaborative Requirement Gathering    To encourage a collaborative team oriented approach to requirements  gathering a team of stakeholders and developers work together to identify the problem, propose the elements of solution, negotiate different approaches and specify a preliminary set of solution requirements. Many different approaches to collaborative requirement gathering have been proposed. There are guidelines which are followed .Some of them are

 

1. Meetings are conducted and attended by both software engineers and customers.
2. Rules for preparation and participation are established
3. An agenda is suggested that is formal enough to cover all important points but informal enough to encourage the free flow of ideas.
4. A facilitator controls the meeting.
5. A definition mechanism is used.
6. The goal is to identify the problem, propose the elements of solution, negotiate different approaches, and specify preliminary set of solutions.

2. .  Quality function Deployment (QFD)Quality function Deployment (QFD) is a technique that translates the needs of the customers  into technical requirements for software.QFD concentrates on maximizing customer satisfaction from the software engineering process.QFD emphasizes an understanding of what is valuable to the customer and deploys these values throughout the engineering process.QFD helps to identify three types of  requirements

• 1. .Normal requirements

These requirements reflect objectives and goals stated for  a product or system during meetings with the customer.If these requirements are present  the customers are satisfied.

 

• 2. Expected Requirements

                                 These requirements are implicit to the product or system and may be so fundamental that the customer  does not  explicitly state them. Their absence will be  a cause  for significant dissatisfaction .

• Exciting requirements

                       These requirements reflect features that go beyond  the customers’ expectations and prove to be very satisfying when present.

 

The function deployment is used to determine the value of each function that is required for the system.Information deployment identifies both the data objects and events that the system must consume and produce.These are tied to the functions .Task deployments examines the behavior of the system or product withn the context of its environment.

QFD uses customer interviews and observation  surveys and examination of the historical data as raw  data  for the  requirements gathering activity.These data are then translated into a requirement table called the customer voice table.

 

3.  User scenarios identification

 

An overall vision of system functions and features begins to materialize  as the requirement gathering process goes on.  It is difficult to move into more technical software engineering activities  until the software team  understands how these functions and features will be used by different classes of end users. To overcome this difficulty the developers and users create a set of scenarios that identify a thread of usage for the system to be constructed.These scenarios are called use cases.These provide a description  of how  the system will be used.

4.Elicitation work product completion

The work products produced  as consequence of requirements elicitation will vary depending on the size of the system or product to be built.For most systems the work products include:

1. A statement of need  and feasibility
2. A bounded statement of scope for system or product
3. A list of customers ,users, and other stakeholders  who participated in requirement elicitation.
4. A description of the system’s  technical environment
5. A list of requirements preferably organized by function and the domain constraints that apply to each
6. A set of usage scenarios  that provide  insight into the use of the system or product under different  operating  conditions.
7. Any prototypes  developed  to better define requirements.

Each of these work products is reviewed by all the people  who have participated in requirement  elicitation.

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