Managing Software Developement

0.2 Requirements Elicitation

Dr. James E. Tomayko

Objective:

At the conclusion of this lesson:
  1. The student shall understand the criticality of accurate requirements elicitation for the success of software development.
  2. The student shall know the elements of requirements analysis:discovery, refinement, modeling, and specification.
  3. The student shall know the role of the system specification, interviews, and techniques such as QFD in the discovery process.
  4. The student shall understand the use and limitations of prototypes.
  5. The student shall appreciate the role of models in understanding requirements.
  6. The student shall be able to differentiate between requirements and a specification.

Activity One: Issues in Requirements Elicitation

Read sections 1 through 6 of the paper Issues in Requirements Elicitation and answer the following questions:
  1. Describe an example requirements elicitation for each of the three major categories of elicitation problems and suggest a technique for solution.
  2. What are the chief differences between the user-oriented and developer oriented tasks of requirements elicitation?

Activity Two: QFD as an Elicitation Tool

Read Appendix A.5 of Issues in Requirements Elicitation and look at the Sample QFD Matrix. What are the advantages and disadvantages of QFD in the elicitation process?

Activity Three: Using Models

A CMU Software Development Studio team developed the arm positioning software for a robot that will maintain the Space Shuttle thermal protective tiles. The robot is the Tessellator. One requirements specification problem was the pattern the arm would use in injecting waterproofing into the Shuttle's tiles. Watch the video Candidate Sweep Patterns. How is such a model effective in evaluating specification decisions?

Activity Four: Requirements versus Specifications

Find a definition for the words "requirements" and "specifications" in a dictionary or software engineering glossary (please give the citation). How do these differ? Give an example of a requirement and a related specification.

Activity Five: Using Prototypes

Watch the video The YF-22 Crash. Was this a disaster? Why or why not?

[ Prev ] Mod Zero:One
[ Next ] Mod Zero:Three
[ Contents ] MSD Home Page
[ Up ] Mod Zero Overview
Please direct comments to the current maintainer of this page.
(c) 1995 CMU | Happy, Norm, Sumner