MONROSE SERVICES LIMITED
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Analysis & Specification
Requirements Management: Key to Success
Effective requirements management is the single most important prerequisite for developing a successful product while meeting time and cost targets. Monrose Services will work with your engineering and marketing teams (and your customers if you wish) to analyse and document the requirements for your product.
Working Method
The usual starting point is a meeting at the client's site at which we aim to understand as much as possible about the objectives of the project, the nature of the product and its intended customers and users. We then prepare a Proposal for the specification work.
The Proposal will normally offer a fixed-price contract for preparing the Specification, and this will include a maintenance period of sixty days from delivery during which errors will be corrected free of charge.
All information supplied by the client is treated as confidential. Monrose Services will enter into a formal non-disclosure agreement if required.
Example Proposal
The following extract is taken from a proposal for preparing a software requirements specification for a test and measurement instrument:
Objectives
A successful Software Requirements Specification should achieve the following:
- Capture the product requirements in a form that is understandable by Engineering and Marketing personnel.
- Contain sufficient detail to act as an input to the software analysis / design process.
- Encourage the preparation of a representative user interface simulation and, if the product requires it, a remote control command specification.
- Be widely accepted by the Software Engineering Team as a definitive reference for the project.
- Be kept up to date.
- Embody acceptance test requirements capable of demonstrating that each requirement has been met.
Working Method
Based on our experience of generating these documents for test and measurement products, we recommend the following approach:
- Hold one or more 'information gathering' meetings in which the functionality of the product is considered from the user's point of view through the examination of real-world measurement scenarios. Ideally these discussions should cover possible future development routes for the product.
- Publish a series of drafts for review by all interested parties. The typical 'cycle time' for a draft is one week. In particular we recommend that every member of the software engineering team should participate in the reviews.
- Establish a mechanism for managing changes to the document once it has been released. (A software defect tracking system may be used for this purpose.)
Specification Contents
The format for a requirements specification depends to a large extent on the specifics of the product under consideration. For a measuring instrument, the following elements are likely to be required:
- Overall description with emphasis on key points from the product's eventual brochure.
- Operational modes.
- User settings: parameter ranges, resolutions and interrelationships.
- Performance issues.
- User interface: general 'style' requirements and internationalisation issues.
- Other interfaces: general requirements (such as standards to be adopted) and performance.
- Use of non-volatile storage.
- Set-up and Calibration (if applicable).
- Diagnostics and other aids to manufacturing and service.
Recent Projects
Monrose Services has undertaken a wide range of analysis and requirements investigations, including:
- Analysing the application of new industry standards to existing products.
- Specifying the software requirements for entire products, or new facilities for existing products.
In addition, Monrose Services has advised clients on techniques for eliciting and managing requirements over the course of a product's life.