Requirement Gathering

Slide Set - 5
Organized & Presented By:
Software Engineering Team CSED
TIET, Patiala
 Requirements Gathering
( 7 Step Model )
Inception

Elicitation

Elaboration

Negotiation

Specification

Validation

Requirements
Management
 Inception Task
• During inception, the requirements engineer asks a set of questions to
establish…
– A basic understanding of the problem
– The people who want a solution
– The nature of the solution that is desired
– The effectiveness of preliminary communication and collaboration between the
customer and the developer
• Through these questions, the requirements engineer needs to…
– Identify the stakeholders
– Recognize multiple viewpoints
– Work toward collaboration
– Break the ice and initiate the communication

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 The First Set of Questions
These questions focus on the customer, other stakeholders, the overall
goals, and the benefits

• Who is behind the request for this work?

• Who will use the solution?
• What will be the economic benefit of a successful solution?
• Is there another source for the solution that you need?

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 Requirements Gathering
(Elicitation)
Inception

Elicitation

Elaboration

Negotiation

Specification

Validation

Requirements
Management
 Elicitation Task
• Eliciting requirements is difficult because of
– Problems of scope in identifying the boundaries of the
system or specifying too much technical detail rather than
overall system objectives
– Problems of understanding what is wanted, what the
problem domain is, and what the computing environment
can handle (Information that is believed to be "obvious" is
often omitted)
– Problems of volatility because the requirements change
over time
• Elicitation may be accomplished through two activities
– Collaborative requirements gathering
– Quality function deployment

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 Eliciting Requirements

These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 6/e and are
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provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright © 1996, 2001, 2005
 Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
• Function deployment determines the “value” (as perceived
by the customer) of each function required of the system

• Information deployment identifies data objects and events

• Task deployment examines the behavior of the system

• Value analysis determines the relative priority of

requirements

These slides are designed to accompany Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 7/e (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Slides copyright
2009 by Roger Pressman.
 Elicitation Work Products
The work products will vary depending on the system, but should
include one or more of the following items

• A statement of need and feasibility

• A bounded statement of scope for the system or product
• A list of customers, users, and other stakeholders who participated in
requirements elicitation
• A description of the system's technical environment
• A list of requirements (organized by function) and the domain
constraints that apply to each
• A set of preliminary usage scenarios (in the form of use cases) that
provide insight into the use of the system or product under different
operating conditions
• Any prototypes developed to better define requirements

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 Use-Cases
• A collection of user scenarios that describe the thread of usage of
a system
• Each scenario is described from the point-of-view of an “actor”—a
person or device that interacts with the software in some way
• Each scenario answers the following questions:
– Who is the primary actor, the secondary actor (s)?
– What are the actor’s goals?
– What preconditions should exist before the story begins?
– What main tasks or functions are performed by the actor?
– What extensions might be considered as the story is described?
– What variations in the actor’s interaction are possible?
– What system information will the actor acquire, produce, or change?
– Will the actor have to inform the system about changes in the external environment?
– What information does the actor desire from the system?
– Does the actor wish to be informed about unexpected changes?

These slides are designed to accompany Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 7/e (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Slides copyright 2009 by Roger
Pressman.
 Use-Case Diagram

These slides are designed to accompany Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 7/e (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Slides
copyright 2009 by Roger Pressman.
 Building the Analysis Model
• Elements of the analysis model
– Scenario-based elements
• Functional—processing narratives for software functions
• Use-case—descriptions of the interaction between an “actor”
and the system
– Class-based elements
• Implied by scenarios
– Behavioral elements
• State diagram
– Flow-oriented elements
• Data flow diagram

These slides are designed to accompany Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 7/e (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Slides
copyright 2009 by Roger Pressman.
 Class Diagram
From the SafeHome system …

These slides are designed to accompany Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 7/e (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Slides copyright 2009
by Roger Pressman.
 State Diagram

Reading
Command
State name
s
System status = “ready”
Display msg = “enter cmd”
Display status = steady
State variables

Entry/subsystems ready
Do: poll user input panel
Do: read user input
Do: interpret user input State activities

These slides are designed to accompany Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 7/e (McGraw-Hill, 2009). Slides copyright
2009 by Roger Pressman.
 Requirements Gathering
(Elaboration)
Inception

Elicitation

Elaboration

Negotiation

Specification

Validation

Requirements
Management
 Elaboration Task
• During elaboration, the software engineer takes the information
obtained during inception and elicitation and begins to expand and
refine it
• Elaboration focuses on developing a refined technical model of
software functions, features, and constraints
• It is an analysis modeling task
– Use cases are developed
– Domain classes are identified along with their attributes and relationships
– State machine diagrams are used to capture the life on an object
• The end result is an analysis model that defines the functional,
informational, and behavioral domains of the problem

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 Requirements Gathering
(Negotiation)
Inception

Elicitation

Elaboration

Negotiation

Specification

Validation

Requirements
Management
 Negotiation Task
• During negotiation, the software engineer reconciles the conflicts
between what the customer wants and what can be achieved given
limited business resources
• Requirements are ranked (i.e., prioritized) by the customers, users,
and other stakeholders
• Risks associated with each requirement are identified and analyzed
• Rough guesses of development effort are made and used to assess
the impact of each requirement on project cost and delivery time
• Using an iterative approach, requirements are eliminated, combined
and/or modified so that each party achieves some measure of
satisfaction

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 The Art of Negotiation

• Recognize that it is not competition

• Map out a strategy
• Listen actively
• Focus on the other party’s interests
• Don’t let it get personal
• Be creative
• Be ready to commit

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 Requirements Gathering
(Specification)
Inception

Elicitation

Elaboration

Negotiation

Specification

Validation

Requirements
Management
 Specification Task
• A specification is the final work product produced by the
requirements engineer
• It is normally in the form of a software requirements specification
• It serves as the foundation for subsequent software engineering
activities
• It describes the function and performance of a computer-based
system and the constraints that will govern its development
• It formalizes the informational, functional, and behavioral
requirements of the proposed software in both a graphical and
textual format

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 Typical Contents of a Software
Requirements Specification
• Requirements
– Required states and modes
– Software requirements grouped by capabilities (i.e., functions, objects)
– Software external interface requirements
– Software internal interface requirements
– Software internal data requirements
– Other software requirements (safety, security, privacy, environment,
hardware, software, communications, quality, personnel, training, logistics,
etc.)
– Design and implementation constraints
• Qualification provisions to ensure each requirement has been met
– Demonstration, test, analysis, inspection, etc.
• Requirements traceability
– Trace back to the system or subsystem where each requirement applies

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Requirements Gathering (Validation)
Inception

Elicitation

Elaboration

Negotiation

Specification

Validation

Requirements
Management
 Validation Task
• During validation, the work products produced as a result of
requirements engineering are assessed for quality
• The specification is examined to ensure that
– all software requirements have been stated unambiguously
– inconsistencies, omissions, and errors have been detected and corrected
– the work products conform to the standards established for the process,
the project, and the product
• The formal technical review serves as the primary requirements
validation mechanism
– Members include software engineers, customers, users, and other
stakeholders

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 Questions to ask when Validating
Requirements
• Is each requirement consistent with the overall objective for the
system/product?
• Have all requirements been specified at the proper level of
abstraction? That is, do some requirements provide a level of
technical detail that is inappropriate at this stage?
• Is the requirement really necessary or does it represent an add-on
feature that may not be essential to the objective of the system?
• Is each requirement bounded and unambiguous?
• Does each requirement have attribution? That is, is a source
(generally, a specific individual) noted for each requirement?

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 Questions to ask when Validating
Requirements (continued)
• Do any requirements conflict with other requirements?
• Is each requirement achievable in the technical environment that will
house the system or product?
• Is each requirement testable, once implemented?
– Approaches: Demonstration, actual test, analysis, or inspection
• Does the requirements model properly reflect the information, function,
and behavior of the system to be built?
• Has the requirements model been “partitioned” in a way that exposes
progressively more detailed information about the system?

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 Requirements Gathering
(Requirement Management)
Inception

Elicitation

Elaboration

Negotiation

Specification

Validation

Requirements
Management
Requirements Management Task
• During requirements management, the project team performs a set of
activities to identify, control, and track requirements and changes to
the requirements at any time as the project proceeds
• Each requirement is assigned a unique identifier
• The requirements are then placed into one or more traceability tables
• These tables may be stored in a database that relate features,
sources, dependencies, subsystems, and interfaces to the
requirements
• A requirements traceability table is also placed at the end of the
software requirements specification

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