1. Requirement Engineering - Customer-Oriented*
07/16/96
Requirement Engineering - Customer-Oriented
Paul Sorenson
Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta CMPUT 401
Software Engineering 1
11/10/2018
Requirements Engineering *

2. Product Success Depends on Customer Satisfaction
If you can satisfy your customers, you satisfy your manager, your company’s top brass, etc.
Cathy
Stable
require
Carl
Sorry
Cathy
Claire
Carl
Cathy
Carl
Carl
Carl
Claire
Carl
Requirements Engineering

3. Requirements Engineering
What are Requirements?
What?
When?
Why?
Where?
How? And by Whom?
Wishes, functionality, constraints, . .
Dictionary: Necessity, something essential to exist.
As soon as the project description/definition has been agreed to…
Continual management of requirements must be an ongoing priority.
We have to have something upon which to base the development of the
system.
Get requirements from clients and end-users. Also from industry standards
and practice.
Use effective communication strategies,
involving all players: clients, end-users,
project managers, developers, maintainers
Requirements Engineering

4. Understanding the Need for Client Involvement*
07/16/96
Understanding the Need for Client Involvement
Top three reasons for late, over-budget or functionally
incomplete projects [Standish Group Study - ‘94]:
Lack of user input
Incomplete requirement specifications
Changing requirement specifications
With respect to rapid development, good customer relations:
improves actual development speed
improves perceived development speed.
Requirements Engineering *

5. Project Stakeholder Objectives
Bosses
No overtime
No surprises
Successful project
Interesting design work
Exploration of new
technical areas
No “grunt” work
Home life
Quick schedule
Low budget
Developers
Customers
Stakeholder
Objective
Reconciliation
End-Users
Lots of features
User-friendly sw
Fast sw
Robust sw
No defects
Good documentation
Modifiability
Maintainers
Requirements Engineering

6. Managing Requirements Effectively*
07/16/96
Managing Requirements Effectively
Planning Phase - setting the stage
Select an appropriate lifecycle model
Identify the real customers - who really needs to be pleased
Establish efficient, effective communication channels with customer
Create win-win project - use Theory-W
Manage customer-related risks
Requirements Engineering *

7. Managing Requirements Effectively*
07/16/96
Managing Requirements Effectively
Requirements Phase
Real
Requirements
Gathered
Requirements
Captured
Requirements
Vosburgh[84] study - found 50% better productivity when customers have a high level of participation in requirements specifications
Same study found that productivity was lower when customer wrote the specs - in one case over half the specs had to be rewritten.
Requirements Engineering *

8. Some Customer Involvement Practices
Use requirement elicitation practices - including: - UI prototyping, evolutionary prototyping, JAD sessions
Form focus group
Videotape customers using software
Conduct customer-satisfaction surveys to obtain quantitative measurements about customer relationships
“Educate” your customers - Josh primer
Requirements Engineering

9. Requirements Engineering
Theory-W
Best
Practice
Tries to create winning positions for stakeholders by getting them on the same side of the negotiating table
It supports rapid development in the following ways: - Establish a set of win-win preconditions before starting - Structure a win-win software process - Structure a win-win software product
Requirements Engineering

10. Requirements Engineering
Theory-W (continued)
Establish Win-Win Preconditions
Understand how people (stakeholders) want to win
Establish reasonable expectations
Match people’s tasks to their win conditions
Provide an environment that supports the project’s goals
Requirements Engineering

11. Requirements Engineering
Theory-W (continued)
Structure Win-Win Software Process
Establish a realistic plan
Use the plan to control the project
Identify and manage win-loss and loss-loss risks
Keep people involved
Structure Win-Win Software Product
Match product to end-users’ and maintainers’ win conditions
Requirements Engineering

12. Requirements Engineering
Conclusions
“Ask not what your customer wants, but what you can do for the customer”
Overall, customer involvement is the . . .
Requirements Engineering