Three- Reflective Journal

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MODULE 1MODULE 1

Introduction to Requirement Engineering

Introduction:

Requirements Engineering refers to the process of gathering the useful

information, re�ne the requirement, documenting the requirements and

managing the requirements, which sets up the critical foundation for

successful information systems/ software development. It is Not a brand-

new idea and it is not only existing in the high technology industry. The

requirement engineering concepts are applied and very well-used

ubiquitously. Previously, requirement engineering is always discussed as

same as the process of software system requirements engineering.

However, the book entitled “The architecture of complexity” which

published in 1962 had already introduced the concept of requirements

engineering. It is before era of modern software development. The

applications and context of requirement engineering while diverse in style

and content as well as in epoch, together give an impression of a very

particular kind of progress: a movement back through the systems

development life-cycle towards the user. The concept of it and the steps of

the process themselves may evolve a lot, however the essence of

requirement engineering has not been changed.

When we are discussing requirement engineering, we will need to

understand what requirement is, and what are the main characteristics of

requirements. Requirement, by de�nition is “a statement that identi�es a

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product or process operational, functional, or design characteristic or

constrain, which is unambiguous testable or measurable, and necessary for

product or process acceptability” (Dick, Hull et al. 2017). However, if we are

gathering the requirements from clients/ business owners (stakeholders),

they may not have the ability to deliver the information precisely and

e�ectively.

The stakeholder of a system is a person or an organisation that has an

(direct or indirect) in�uence on the requirements of the system. There

would be a gap between their actual needs and the functionalities of the

products. We therefore need to build up e�ective requirements practices,

which would help the business analyst to catch the stakeholder’s needs and

face today’s complex system challenges. For example, in the game of

“Whispers”, someone stars with a short message ad passes onto the next

person, but always in a whisper. In the end, the di�erent information

received from the last person would be as astonishing as to bring laughter

to all. Another simple example, when waiters are taking orders at tables, the

best practise is to explain the menu to customers �rst, take the order from

customers, repeat and con�rm the order with customers and then pass the

information to kitchen. The information that the waiter received from the

customer is accurate and the information delivered to kitchen is precise and

simple. Unnecessary activities and miscommunications would be avoided.

Practitioners describe requirement engineering as the roadmap guide for

the process of information systems implementation. Why has requirements

engineering become so important? (An open discussion session is

recommended)

Firstly, we need to understand that requirement engineering is complex and

di�cult. It is not a simple matter of documenting what the stakeholders say.

The requirements which can help solve the fundamental problems of an

organization are dynamic. The awareness of market change leads the

change of requirements. There is a tendency that the change, especially in

the technology world, is quicker than the last second. Therefore, the

requirements are changing all the time.

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Secondly, requirements engineering comprises many distinctive skill sets.

Practitioners who are specialised in requirement engineering are

recommended to be familiar with the knowledge of project planning, system

engineering planning, quality assurance planning and con�guration

management planning, test planning and other relevant planning tools and

knowledge. It is too complicated to ensure the integrity and quality of

requirement engineering work at a single work place, especially small-scale

companies, therefore many organizations choose to outsource/ subcontract

the job to professional requirement engineering services.

Thirdly, good requirements are elicited not only from the customer needs,

but also from the industry/market analysis. For example, many start-ups

aim at solving the industry pain points by implementing mobile apps or

providing speci�c services. Yet, many business ideas are killed at the

beginning of the implement cycle or dead after a capital drain. The needs of

the star-up co-founder not simply equal to the needs of the market or the

target audiences. Requirements engineering will help to re�ne the business

needs, iron the business ideas and eventually generate a better value

proposition.

There are four steps in the process requirement engineering:

1. Feasibility Study

2. Requirement Gathering/elicitation

3. Information System Requirement Speci�cation

4. Information System Requirement Validation

Essential Resources:

Young, R. R. (2004). The requirements engineering

handbook, Artech House. Available at:

http://www.acqnotes.com/Attachments/The%20Requirements%20Enginee

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You are required to read Chapter 1 in this e-book to understand the

importance of requirements.

Agile TV 2012 ‘How to De�ne Agile Requirements’, [online]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XivPjrC9I4s, last updated

07 Sep, 2019, accessed 12 May 2019.

This resource gives us a great overview of what agile requirement are,

why requirement engineering is hard and important, what would be

the best process of gathering the requirements.

References:

Dick, J., et al. (2017). Requirements engineering, Springer.