Requirements Engineering Processes

Processes used to discover, analyse and validate system requirements

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 1

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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 2

The requirements engineering process

Feasibility study Requirements elicitation and analysis

Requirements specification Requirements validation

Feasibility report System models User and system requirements

Requirements document

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 3

Feasibility studies
 

For each new system RE starts with this study A feasibility study decides whether or not the proposed system is worthwhile 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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 4

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 wasnt 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?

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 5

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 systems operational constraints May involve end-users, managers, engineers involved in maintenance, domain experts, trade unions, etc. These are called stakeholders
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 6

Andreas S. Andreou

Problems of requirements analysis

 

Stakeholders dont 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 changes
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 7

Andreas S. Andreou

The requirements analysis process

Generic model: each organiz ation has its own version
Requirements validation Domain understanding Requirements definition and specification

Prioritization

Process entry

Requirements collection

Conflict resolution

Classification

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 8

Process activities
 

  

Domain understanding (how the organi ation operates) Requirements collection (interaction with stakeholders) Classification (into coherent clusters) Conflict resolution (find & resolve) Prioritisation (interaction with stakeholders, identification of most important requirements) Requirements checking (completeness, consistency, real needs)
CONTINUOUS FEEDBACK BETWEEN ACTIVITIES
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 9

Andreas S. Andreou

System models


Different models may be produced during the requirements analysis activity Requirements analysis may involve three structuring activities which result in these different models
Partitioning. Identifies the structural (part-of) relationships between entities Abstraction. Identifies generalities among entities Projection. Identifies different ways of looking at a problem

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 10

Viewpoint-oriented elicitation


Stakeholders represent different ways of looking at a problem or problem viewpoints This multi-perspective analysis is important as there is no single correct way to analyse system requirements

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 11

Banking ATM system



The example used here is an auto-teller system which provides some automated banking services Usage of a very simplified system which offers some services to customers of the bank that owns the system and a narrower range of services to other customers Services include cash withdrawal, message passing (send a message to request a service), ordering a statement and transferring funds
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 12

Andreas S. Andreou

Autoteller viewpoints
       

Bank customers Representatives of other banks Hardware and software maintenance engineers Marketing department Bank managers and counter staff Database administrators and security staff Communications engineers Personnel department
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 13

Andreas S. Andreou

Types of viewpoint


Data sources or sinks

Viewpoints are responsible for producing or consuming data. Analysis involves checking that data is produced and consumed and that assumptions about the source and sink of data are valid

Representation frameworks
Viewpoints represent particular types of system model. These may be compared to discover requirements that would be missed using a single representation. Particularly suitable for real-time systems

Receivers of services
Viewpoints are external to the system and receive services from it. Most suited to interactive systems
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 14

Andreas S. Andreou

External viewpoints
 

For interactive systems Natural to think of end-users as receivers of system services Advantages:


Viewpoints are a natural way to structure requirements elicitation It is relatively easy to decide if a viewpoint is valid (it must interact with the system) Viewpoints and services may be used to structure non-functional requirements
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 15

Andreas S. Andreou

Method-based analysis


Widely used approach to requirements analysis. Depends on the application of a structured method to understand the system Methods have different emphases. Some are designed for requirements elicitation, others are close to design methods A viewpoint-oriented method (VORD) is used as an example here. It also illustrates the use of viewpoints
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 16

Andreas S. Andreou

The VORD method

Viewpoint identification

Viewpoint structuring

Viewpoint documentation

Viewpoint system mapping

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 17

VORD process model

Principal stages


Viewpoint identification
Discover viewpoints which receive system services and identify the services provided to each viewpoint Group related viewpoints into a hierarchy. Common services are provided at higher-levels in the hierarchy and are inherited by lower level viewpoints Refine the description of the identified viewpoints and services Transform the analysis to an object-oriented design
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 18

Viewpoint structuring

Viewpoint documentation

Viewpoint-system mapping

Andreas S. Andreou

VORD standard forms

Viewpoint template Reference: The viewpoint name. Attributes: Attributes providing viewpoint information. Events: A reference to a set of event scenarios describing how the system reacts to viewpoint events. Services A reference to a set of service descriptions. Sub-VPs: The names of subviewpoints. Service template Reference: The service name. Rationale: Reason why the service is provided. Specification: Reference to a list of service specifications. These may be expressed in different notations. Viewpoints: List of viewpoint names receiving the service. Non-functional Reference to a set of non requirements: functional requirements which constrain the service. Provider: Reference to a list of system objects which provide the service.

Used to collect viewpoint and service information

Andreas S. Andreou CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 19

Viewpoint identification
Probably the most difficult stage Brainstorming where potential services and entities are identified Stakeholders meet and suggest possible viewpoints (bubbles)

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 20

Viewpoint identification
Query balance Machine supplies Get transactions Manager Account information User interface Account holder Remote diagnostics System cost Stolen card Message log Foreign customer Customer database Card returning Software si e Printer Security Hardware maintenance Funds transfer Message passing Card retention Card validation Cash withdrawal Remote software upgrade Bank teller Transaction log Order cheques Invalid user

Order statement Update account

Reliability

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 21

Viewpoint identification
  

Identify viewpoints (blue) Identify services (green) Allocation of services to viewpoints (viewpoints may have common services)

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 22

Viewpoint service information

ACCOUNT HOLDER Service list Withdraw cash Query balance Order cheques Send message Transaction list Order statement Transfer funds FOREIGN CUSTOMER Service list Withdraw cash Query balance BANK TELLER Service list Run diagnostics Add cash Add paper Send message

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 23

Viewpoint data/control
ACCOUNT HOLDER Control input Start transaction Cancel transaction End transaction Select service Data input Card details PIN Amount required Message

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 24

Viewpoint hierarchy
Services are inherited top-down (common services)
Services Query balance Withdraw cash Customer Bank staff All VPs

Services Order cheques Send message Transaction list Order statement Transfer funds

Account holder

Foreign customer

Teller

Manager

Engineer

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 25

Customer/cash withdrawal templates

Reference: Customer Attributes: Account number PIN Start transaction Events: Select service Cancel transaction End transaction Services: Sub-VPs: Cash withdrawal Balance enquiry Account holder Foreign customer Reference: Rationale: Cash withdrawal To improve customer service and reduce paperwork

Specification: Users choose this service by pressing the cash withdrawal button. They then enter the amount required. This is confirmed and, if funds allow, the balance is delivered. VPs: Customer

Deliver cash within 1 minute Non-funct. requirements: of amount being confirmed Provider: Filled in later

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 26

Scenarios
 

Events in the viewpoints refer to scenarios Scenarios are descriptions of how a system is used in practice They are helpful in requirements elicitation as people can relate to these more readily than abstract statement of what they require from a system Scenarios are particularly useful for adding detail to an outline requirements description Developed for all viewpoints and associated services
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 27

Andreas S. Andreou

Scenario descriptions
    

System state at the beginning of the scenario Normal flow of events in the scenario What can go wrong and how this is handled Other concurrent activities System state on completion of the scenario

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 28

Event scenarios


Event scenarios may be used to describe how a system responds to the occurrence of some particular event such as start transaction VORD includes a diagrammatic convention for event scenarios.
Data provided and delivered Control information Exception processing The next expected event

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 29

Event scenario - start transaction

Card present Valid card Card Request PIN PIN Account number PIN Validate user Account number Select service User OK

Timeout Return card

Incorrect PIN Re-enter PIN

Invalid card Return card Incorrect PIN Stolen card Retain card Return card

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 30

Notation for data and control analysis



  

Ellipses: Data provided from or delivered to a viewpoint Control information enters and leaves at the top of each box Data leaves from the right of each box Exceptions are shown at the bottom of each box Name of next event is in box with thick edges

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 31

Exception description


Most methods do not include facilities for describing exceptions In this example, exceptions are
Timeout. Customer fails to enter a PIN within the allowed time limit Invalid card. The card is not recognised and is returned Stolen card. The card has been registered as stolen and is retained by the machine

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 32

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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 33

Lending use-case

Lending services

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 34

Library use-cases
Lending services Library User

User administration

Library Staff

Supplier
Andreas S. Andreou

Catalog services
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 35

Catalogue management
Item: Library Item Bookshop: Supplier Acquire New Catalog Item Dispose Books: Catalog Cataloguer: Library Staff

Uncatalog Item

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 36

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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 37

Example


Consider a system which allows senior management to access information without going through middle managers
Managerial status. Senior managers may feel that they are too important to use a keyboard. This may limit the type of system interface used Managerial responsibilities. Managers may have no uninterrupted time where they can learn to use the system Organisational resistance. Middle managers who will be made redundant may deliberately provide misleading or incomplete information so that the system will fail

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 38

Ethnography


A social scientist 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
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 39

Andreas S. Andreou

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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 40

Ethnography and prototyping

Ethnographic analysis Debriefing meetings Focused ethnography Prototype evaluation Generic system development System protoyping

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 41

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 (e.g. air-traffic controllers switch-off alarm for intersecting flights because it annoys them) Requirements that are derived from cooperation and awareness of other peoples activities (knowing the workload of other controllers, an air-traffic controller can estimate his upcoming workload)
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 42

Andreas S. Andreou

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 (it goes through specs, design and implementation)

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 43

Requirements checking
Types of Checks:


Validity. Does the system provide the functions which best support the customers needs? Consistency. Are there any requirements conflicts or different descriptions of the same function? Completeness. Are all functions (and constraints) required by the customer included? Realism. Can the requirements be implemented given available budget and technology? Verifiability. Can the requirements be checked?
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 44

Andreas S. Andreou

Requirements validation techniques



Requirements reviews
Systematic manual analysis of the requirements Using an executable model of the system to check requirements Developing tests for requirements to check testability Tests difficult to implement reveal potential difficulty of implementing requirements Checking the consistency of a structured requirements description (formal notation) using a dedicated CASE tool
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 45

Prototyping

Test-case generation

Automated consistency analysis

Andreas S. Andreou

Automated consistency checking

Requirements in a formal language Requirements problem report

Requirements processor Requirements database

Requirements analyser

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 46

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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 47

Review checks


Verifiability. Is the requirement realistically testable? Comprehensibility. Is the requirement properly understood by procurers or end-users? Traceability. Is the origin of the requirement clearly stated? Adaptability. Can the requirement be changed without a large impact on other requirements?

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 48

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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 49

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

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 50

Requirements evolution
Initial understanding of problem Changed understanding of problem

Initial requirements

Changed requirements

Time
Andreas S. Andreou CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 51

Enduring and volatile requirements

Evolution perspective : Two classes of requirements


Enduring requirements. Stable requirements derived from the core activity of the customer organisation. E.g. a hospital will always have doctors, nurses, etc. Requirements 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
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 52

Andreas S. Andreou

Classification of volatile requirements



Mutable requirements
Requirements that change due to the systems environment Requirements that emerge as understanding of the system develops Requirements that result from the introduction of the computer system (change of working processes) Requirements that depend on other systems or organisational processes
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 53

Emergent requirements

Consequential requirements

Compatibility requirements

Andreas S. Andreou

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 that assess the cost and impact of changes Traceability policies The amount of information about requirements relationships that is maintained CASE tool support The tool support required to help manage requirements change
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 54

Andreas S. Andreou

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 Links between dependent requirements to assess how many other requirements will be affected Links from the requirements to the design modules that implement them
CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 55

Requirements traceability

Design traceability

Andreas S. Andreou

A traceability matrix
sed to represent traceability information (for a small number of reqs)
Req. i 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.1 3.2 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.1 3.2

 A U is used when a req. in a row uses the facilities of the req. in the column  An R is used when there is a weaker relationship (e.g. reqs are part of the same sub-system)
Andreas S. Andreou CS603 Advanced Software Engineering Slide 56

CASE tool support



Requirements storage
Requirements should be managed in a secure, managed data store The process of change management is a workflow process (see figure) whose stages can be defined and information flow between these stages partially automated Automated retrieval of the links between requirements

Change management

Traceability management

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 57

Requirements change management



Should apply to all proposed changes to the requirements Principal stages

Problem analysis and change specification. Discuss requirements problem and propose change Change analysis and costing. Assess effects of change on other requirements Change implementation. Modify requirements document and other documents to reflect change

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 58

Requirements change management

Identified problem

Problem analysis and change specification

Change analysis and costing

Change implementation

Revised requirements

Andreas S. Andreou

CS603 Advanced Software Engineering

Slide 59