CH 7

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Requirements Engineering

Processes

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 1


Objectives

To describe the principal requirements
engineering activities and their relationships

To introduce techniques for requirements
elicitation and analysis

To describe requirements validation and the
role of requirements reviews

To discuss the role of requirements
management in support of other
requirements engineering processes

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 2


Topics covered

Feasibility studies

Requirements elicitation and analysis

Requirements validation

Requirements management

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 3


Requirements engineering processes

The processes used for RE vary widely
depending on the application domain, the
people involved and the organisation
developing the requirements.

However, there are a number of generic
activities common to all processes
• Requirements elicitation;
• Requirements analysis;
• Requirements validation;
• Requirements management.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 4


The requirements engineering process

Requirements
Feasibility elicitation and
study
analysis
Requirements
specification
Feasibility Requirements
report validation

System
models

User and system


requirements

Requirements
document

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 5


7.1. Feasibility studies

A feasibility study decides whether or not the
proposed system is worthwhile or doable.

A short focused study that checks
• If the system contributes to organisational
objectives;
• If the system can be engineered using current
technology and within budget;
• If the system can be integrated with other
systems that are used.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 6


Feasibility study implementation

Based on information assessment (what is required),
information collection and report writing.

Questions for people in the organisation
• What if the system wasn’t implemented?
• What are current process problems?
• How will the proposed system help?
• What will be the integration problems?
• Is new technology needed? What skills?
• What facilities must be supported by the proposed
system?

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 7


7.2. Elicitation and analysis

Sometimes called requirements elicitation or
requirements discovery.

Involves technical staff working with customers to
find out about the application domain, the services
that the system should provide and the system’s
operational constraints.

May involve end-users, managers, engineers
involved in maintenance, domain experts, trade
unions, etc. These are called stakeholders.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 8


Problems of requirements analysis

Stakeholders don’t know what they really want.

Stakeholders express requirements in their own
terms.

Different stakeholders may have conflicting
requirements.

Organisational and political factors may influence the
system requirements.

The requirements change during the analysis
process. New stakeholders may emerge and the
business environment change.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 9


Process activities

Requirements discovery
• Interacting with stakeholders to discover their
requirements. Domain requirements are also discovered
at this stage.

Requirements classification and organisation
• Groups related requirements and organises them into
coherent clusters.

Prioritisation and negotiation
• Prioritising requirements and resolving requirements
conflicts.

Requirements documentation
• Requirements are documented and input into the next
round of the spiral.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 10


Requirements discovery

The process of gathering information about
the proposed and existing systems and
distilling the user and system requirements
from this information.

Sources of information include
documentation, system stakeholders and the
specifications of similar systems (templates).

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 11


ATM stakeholders

Bank customers

Representatives of other banks

Bank managers

Counter staff

Database administrators

Security managers

Marketing department

Hardware and software maintenance engineers

Banking regulators

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 12


Viewpoints

Viewpoints are a way of structuring the
requirements to represent the perspectives
of different stakeholders. Stakeholders may
be classified under different viewpoints.

This multi-perspective analysis is important
as there is no single correct way to analyse
system requirements.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 13


Types of viewpoint

Interactor viewpoints
• People or other systems that interact directly with the
system. In an ATM, the customers and the account
database are interactor VPs.

Indirect viewpoints
• Stakeholders who do not use the system themselves but
who influence the requirements. In an ATM, management
and security staff are indirect viewpoints.

Domain viewpoints
• Domain characteristics and constraints that influence the
requirements. In an ATM, an example would be
standards for inter-bank communications.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 14


Viewpoint identification

Identify viewpoints using
• Providers and receivers of system services;
• Systems that interact directly with the system
being specified;
• Regulations and standards;
• Sources of business and non-functional
requirements.
• Engineers who have to develop and maintain
the system;
• Marketing and other business viewpoints.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 15


LIBSYS viewpoint hierarchy

All VPs

Indirect Interactor Domain

Library Article Library UI Classification


Finance Users
manager providers staff standards system

System
Students Staff External Cataloguers
managers

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 16


Interviewing

In formal or informal interviewing, the RE
team puts questions to stakeholders about
the system that they use and the system to
be developed.

There are two types of interview
• Closed interviews where a pre-defined set of
questions are answered.
• Open interviews where there is no pre-defined
agenda and a range of issues are explored with
stakeholders.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 17


Interviews in practice

Normally a mix of closed and open-ended
interviewing.

Interviews are good for getting an overall
understanding of what stakeholders do and how
they might interact with the system.

Interviews are not good for understanding domain
requirements
• Requirements engineers cannot understand specific
domain terminology;
• Some domain knowledge is so familiar that people find it
hard to articulate or think that it isn’t worth articulating.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 18


Effective interviewers

Interviewers should be open-minded, willing
to listen to stakeholders and should not have
pre-conceived ideas about the requirements.

They should prompt the interviewee with a
question or a proposal and should not simply
expect them to respond to a question such
as ‘what do you want’.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 19


Scenarios

Scenarios are real-life examples of how a
system can be used.

They should include
• A description of the starting situation;
• A description of the normal flow of events;
• A description of what can go wrong;
• Information about other concurrent activities;
• A description of the state when the scenario
finishes.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 20


LIBSYS scenario (1)

Initial assumption: The user has logged on to the LIBSYS system and has located the journal containing
the copy of the article.
Normal: The user selects the article to be copied. He or she is then prompted by the system to either
provide subscriber information for the journal or to indicate how they will pay for the article. Alternative
payment methods are by credit card or by quoting an organisational account number.
The user is then asked to fill in a copyright form that maintains details of the transaction and they then
submit this to the LIBSYS system.
The copyright form is checked and, if OK, the PDF version of the article is downloaded to the LIBSYS
working area on the user’s computer and the user is informed that it is available. The user is asked to select
a printer and a copy of the article is printed. If the article has been flagged as ‘print-only’ it is deleted from
the user’s system once the user has confirmed that printing is complete.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 21


LIBSYS scenario (2)

What can go wrong: The user may fail to fill in the copyright form correctly. In this case, the form should
be re-presented to the user for correction. If the resubmitted form is still incorrect then the user’s request
for the article is rejected.
The payment may be rejected by the system. The user’s request for the article is rejected.
The article download may fail. Retry until successful or the user terminates the session.
It may not be possible to print the article. If the article is not flagged as ‘print-only’ then it is held in the
LIBSYS workspace. Otherwise, the article is deleted and the user’s account credited with the cost of the
article.
Other activities: Simultaneous downloads of other articles.
System state on completion: User is logged on. The downloaded article has been deleted from LIBSYS
workspace if it has been flagged as print-only.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 22


Use cases

Use-cases are a scenario based technique
in the UML which identify the actors in an
interaction and which describe the
interaction itself.

A set of use cases should describe all
possible interactions with the system.

Sequence diagrams may be used to add
detail to use-cases by showing the sequence
of event processing in the system.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 23


Article printing use-case

Article printing

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 24


LIBSYS use cases

Article search

Library Article printing


User

User administration Library


Staff

Supplier Catalogue services

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 25


Print article sequence
item: copyrightF
orm: myWorkspace: myPrinter:
Article Form Workspace Printer

User

request
request

complete
return

copyright OK

deliver

article OK

print
send

inform confirm

delete

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 26


Social and organisational factors

Software systems are used in a social and
organisational context. This can influence or
even dominate the system requirements.

Social and organisational factors are not a
single viewpoint but are influences on all
viewpoints.

Good analysts must be sensitive to these
factors but currently no systematic way to
tackle their analysis.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 27


Ethnography

A social scientists spends a considerable time
observing and analysing how people actually work.

People do not have to explain or articulate their
work.

Social and organisational factors of importance may
be observed.

Ethnographic studies have shown that work is
usually richer and more complex than suggested by
simple system models.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 28


Focused ethnography

Developed in a project studying the air traffic
control process

Combines ethnography with prototyping

Prototype development results in
unanswered questions which focus the
ethnographic analysis.

The problem with ethnography is that it
studies existing practices which may have
some historical basis which is no longer
relevant.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 29


Scope of ethnography

Requirements that are derived from the way
that people actually work rather than the way
in which process definitions suggest that
they ought to work.

Requirements that are derived from
cooperation and awareness of other people’s
activities.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 30


7.3. Requirements validation

Concerned with demonstrating that the
requirements define the system that the
customer really wants.

Requirements error costs are high so
validation is very important
• Fixing a requirements error after delivery may
cost up to 100 times the cost of fixing an
implementation error.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 31


Requirements checking

Validity. Does the system provide the functions
which best support the customer’s needs?

Consistency. Are there any requirements conflicts?

Completeness. Are all functions required by the
customer included?

Realism. Can the requirements be implemented
given available budget and technology

Verifiability. Can the requirements be checked?

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 32


Requirements validation techniques

Requirements reviews
• Systematic manual analysis of the
requirements.

Prototyping
• Using an executable model of the system to
check requirements. Covered in Chapter 17.

Test-case generation
• Developing tests for requirements to check
testability.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 33


Requirements reviews

Regular reviews should be held while the
requirements definition is being formulated.

Both client and contractor staff should be
involved in reviews.

Reviews may be formal (with completed
documents) or informal. Good
communications between developers,
customers and users can resolve problems
at an early stage.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 34


Review checks

Verifiability. Is the requirement realistically
testable?

Comprehensibility. Is the requirement
properly understood?

Traceability. Is the origin of the requirement
clearly stated?

Adaptability. Can the requirement be
changed without a large impact on other
requirements?

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 35


7.4. Requirements management

Requirements management is the process of
managing changing requirements during the
requirements engineering process and system
development.

Requirements are inevitably incomplete and
inconsistent
• New requirements emerge during the process as
business needs change and a better understanding of the
system is developed;
• Different viewpoints have different requirements and
these are often contradictory.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 36


Requirements change

The priority of requirements from different
viewpoints changes during the development
process.

System customers may specify requirements
from a business perspective that conflict with
end-user requirements.

The business and technical environment of
the system changes during its development.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 37


Requirements evolution

Initial Changed
understanding understanding
of problem of problem

Initial Changed
requirements requirements

Time

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 38


Enduring and volatile requirements

Enduring requirements. Stable requirements
derived from the core activity of the customer
organisation. E.g. a hospital will always have
doctors, nurses, etc. May be derived from
domain models

Volatile requirements. Requirements which
change during development or when the
system is in use. In a hospital, requirements
derived from health-care policy

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 39


Requirements management planning

During the requirements engineering process, you
have to plan:
• Requirements identification
• How requirements are individually identified;
• A change management process
• The process followed when analysing a requirements
change;
• Traceability policies
• The amount of information about requirements relationships
that is maintained;
• CASE tool support
• The tool support required to help manage requirements
change;

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 40


Traceability

Traceability is concerned with the relationships
between requirements, their sources and the system
design

Source traceability
• Links from requirements to stakeholders who proposed
these requirements;

Requirements traceability
• Links between dependent requirements;

Design traceability
• Links from the requirements to the design;

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 41


Key points

The requirements engineering process
includes a feasibility study, requirements
elicitation and analysis, requirements
specification and requirements management.

Requirements elicitation and analysis is
iterative involving domain understanding,
requirements collection, classification,
structuring, prioritisation and validation.

Systems have multiple stakeholders with
different requirements.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 42


Key points

Social and organisation factors influence
system requirements.

Requirements validation is concerned with
checks for validity, consistency,
completeness, realism and verifiability.

Business changes inevitably lead to
changing requirements.

Requirements management includes
planning and change management.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 7 Slide 43

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