Chapter 15. Whither Requirements?

in which we consider some other issues for the requirements

Sometimes, the way we talk about the requirements process makes it sound as if this process has a clean start and finish: We begin on day 1 with a blank sheet and knowledgeable stakeholders, and once we have specified the requirements for a product, our job is over. We would certainly like that to be the case. In reality, requirements, like anything else, need to be managedand not just while the requirements are being gathered, but for as long as the product exists.

In this chapter, we look at some of the management issues attached to requirements. Although this is not a complete treatise on managing a requirements effort, we will exploresome major issues:

Robertson, Suzanne, and James Robertson. Requirements-Led Project Management: Discovering David's Slingshot. Addison-Wesley, 2005.

• Adapting the requirements process to suit the project

• Tools for recording and manipulating your requirements

• Publishing the requirements for communicating to different people and organizations for different purposes

• Tracing the requirements through the development of the product

• Dealing with change

• A retrospective to improve your process

All of these issues have an impact on how you manage your requirements.