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Requirements Analysis
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Introduction | Training Objective | Course Outline - Requirements Analysis | Course Outline - Specification Writing | Course Materials | Key Questions | Who Should Attend | About the Presenter | Course Schedule
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This course is recognised by Engineers Australia for CPD purposes (40 hours) |
Introduction
Requirements analysis and specification writing are sciences practised by many, mastered by surprisingly few. And yet, the payoff from achieving excellence in these areas is large. The two aspects, Requirements Analysis and Specification Writing, are treated as separate but related topics, each in a course of two and three days duration.
The three-day Requirements Analysis course addresses the techniques used to capture, validate and gain a complete understanding of requirements communicated at all stages of the system life cycle. The two-day Specification Writing course addresses in detail the conversion of individual requirements into effective requirements specifications. The course focuses on the structure and language of requirements specification.
The two courses are complementary, with little overlap. They may therefore be taken together, or taken individually. The two courses comprise Project Performance International’s popular 5-day public course in Requirements Analysis and Specification Writing. The course is delivered worldwide.
Training Objective
The two day Specification Writing module provides detailed instructions on the conversion of requirements into highly effective requirements specifications. Issues of structure (organization of information) and the use of (English) language throughout a requirements specification are examined in considerable detail. Public domain specification standards are overviewed and compared. High quality templates/guides are provided for the specification of systems, software, interfaces and services, respectively, with examples. The course is strongly workshop oriented throughout. The techniques of specification writing which are taught have been used to great effect in scenarios which include acquisition, supply, product definition (both hardware and software), enterprise internal projects, business analysis and engineering projects of diverse types, large and small.
Course Outline - Requirements Analysis - Days 1 to 3
1. Why Emphasise Requirements
- Issues and terminology
- Lessons from real projects
- Requirements and the law
2. Requirements Within the System Life Cycle
- The origin of requirements
- Concept of the system boundary
- The modelling boundary
- The system engineering process
- Development of system architecture and detail design
- Requirements traceability
- Summary of terms relating to requirements
- Baselines and their use
- The waterfall life cycle paradigm
- Incremental acquisition/development
- Evolutionary acquisition/development
- Workshop - requirements engineering principles
- Common requirements pitfalls in the system life cycle
3. What are Requirements
- Definitions and views
- Relationship to Design
- Relationship to Baselines
4. Types of Requirements
- Why categorise requirements by type?
- Eight basic types
- Differences between requirements for hardware, software, services
- Non-Requirements
- Workshop - categorising requirements by type
- Other categories - design drivers, critical, global, priority, importance, stability
5. The Quality of Requirements
- Correctness
- Completeness
- Consistency
- Clarity
- Non-ambiguity
- Traceability
- Testability
- Singularity
- Feasibility
- Freedom from product/process mix
6. Requirements Analysis Techniques
- Primary, Secondary, Tertiary stakeholders
- Initial assessment and planning
- Measuring requirements quality
- Methods of engaging in requirements dialogue
- Context analysis
- Workshop - context analysis
- Design requirements analysis
- States & Modes analysis
- Workshop - States and modes analysis
- Requirements parsing
- Workshop - parsing analysis
- Functional analysis - needs analysis, operational analysis, use cases
- Workshop - functional analysis
- Rest of scenario analysis
- Optional Workshop - rest of scenario analysis
- Out of range analysis
- Optional Workshop - out of range analysis
- ERA Analysis
- Other constraints search
- Value analysis
- Verification requirements development
- Operational concept description
- Clean-Up
- Special issues of the human interface
- Supplementary methods and notations
- Common pitfalls in requirements analysis
7. Coping with the Real World
- What to do when the user "doesn't know"
- How to respond to "moving goalposts"
- Protecting yourself from the communication chasm
>8. Software Tool Support
- Tools supporting requirements analysis
- Tools supporting requirements management
- Examples of available tools
- Common pitfalls in using tools
9. Requirements Verification
- Requirements reviews
- Use of metrics
10. Management of Requirements Analysis
- Management issues
- Using and managing "TBDs"
- Designing a requirements codification scheme
- Managing resolution of requirements issues
- Defining reviews and reports
- Risk management applied to the requirements phase
- Risk driven specifications
11. Summary and Conclusion
Course Outline - Specification Writing - Days 4 to 5
1. Transforming Requirements into Requirements Specifications
- What is a specification?
- How requirements specifications relate to requirements
- How requirements specifications relate to configuration baselines
- Using DIDs and templates
- Using a requirements database to automate specification production
2. Requirements Flowdown in Specifications
- The specification tree
- Special considerations for interface requirements
3. Specification Types and Formats
- Types of requirements specification
- IEEE specification standards
- US Military and other international specification standards
- Score sheet for public domain specification standards
4. Structuring Your Specification
- What to put in your system requirements specifications, the statement of work (or equivalent) and the conditions of contract
- Workshop - allocation of requirements to the specification, the statement of work and conditions of contract
- Structuring a statement of work
- Structuring a system requirements specification
- Dealing with variants
- Workshop - structuring a specification to deal with variants
- States and Modes
- Workshop - structuring a specification to deal with states and modes
- Functional versus design oriented specifications
- Differences
- When to use each type
- Function and performance
- Workshop - classifying requirements as functional or design
- Workshop - writing a functionally oriented specification
- Workshop - writing a design oriented specification
- Other requirements types
- Annexes, appendices and applicable documents
5. Specification Writing
- Review of requirements quality
- Requirement structural template
- Workshop - expressing strong requirements
- Requirements constructs
- Shall, should, will and may
- Linking
- Cross-referencing
- Workshop - linking and cross-referencing
- defining terms
- Workshop - defining terms
- Context dependence
- Reference to applicable documents
- Use of precedence
- Workshop - using precedence
- Using success criteria to express otherwise vague requirements
- Workshop - using success criteria
- Workshop - specification of key requirements for a system
- Paragraph headings
- Use of supporting data
- Mission profiles/use cases
- Baseline designs
- Benchmarks
- Linking the specification to the statement of work or conditions of contract
- Test specifications
- Workshop - evaluation of example specifications
6. Bibliography
- Additional reference material
Training Materials
For each seminar attended, you will be provided with:
- comprehensive seminar notes
- a workbook containing workshop exercises
- workshop model solutions
- checklists, forms and charts which you can use immediately in your projects
- a CD-Rom with extensive documents and resources
- access to PPI's Systems Engineering Goldmine
Key Questions
- Why do requirements errors cost more to correct than any other class of error?
- How can I best deal with requirements which the user can express only in vague terms?
- Do requirements which are not "in the contract" have any effect in a contractual scenario?
- How can you best unscramble a poor Request for Tender or requirements specification?
- How can you efficiently use requirements analysis to help prepare not only the system specification, but also the major plans?
- How can I best live with "moving goal posts"?
- How can I cope with the inevitable "missing information" without losing control of technical baselines?
- What are the differences between functional and design specifications and when should each be used?
- Why is it necessary to deal with states and modes early?
- Why is the use of a requirements structural model the sure-fire path to producing strong requirements specifications?
- How can I best structure my requirements specification?
- What syntax produces the best requirements specifications?
Who Should Attend this Course?
Requirements Analysis and Specification Writing is designed for acquirer, supplier and developer personnel who, in any capacity, deal with requirements.
About the Presenter - Mr. Robert Halligan, FIE Australia
Your presenter, Mr Robert Halligan, FIE (Aust), is Managing Director of Project Performance (Australia) Pty Limited. He was also founder of Technology Australia Pty
Limited, a consultancy company which received remarkable success in guiding its clients
to success in winning and performing on major defence and aerospace projects. Mr Halligan
has previously held senior project-related engineering and management positions with
Rockwell, Andrew Corporation and the Department of Defence (Australia). Mr Halligan has
honed his experience over twenty years in the engineering of large communications,
computing and electronic warfare systems... |  |
Course Schedule
* All AUD$ amounts are inclusive of GST