chapter 5
ways to document the requirements:
Review the project charter (because it includes high-level requirements for the project), Refer to the scope and requirements management plans. Review the stakeholder register and stakeholder management plan (to ensure that all key stakeholders have a say in determining requirements).
work breakdown structure (WBS
a deliverable oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines its total scope and provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources, and changes.
COLLECTING REQUIREMENTS for software projs
prototyping document analysis Context diagrams Benchmarking
Joint Application Design (JAD)
uses highly organized and intensive workshops to bring together project stakeholders—the sponsor, users, business analysts, programmers, and so on—to jointly define and design information systems.
An important tool for performing scope control
variance analysis.
info in requirements management plan
• How to plan, track, and report requirements activities • How to perform configuration management activities • How to prioritize requirements • How to use product metrics • How to trace and capture attributes of requirements
6 main processes of scope. manag.
1. plan scope management (outputs: scope manag. plan, req. manag. plan) 2. collect requirements (req docs, rmt) 3. define scope (scope statement, doc updates) 4 create wbs (wbs, dic, baseline) 5. validate scope(accpeted deliverables, change req, work performance info, docs updates) 6. control scope (work performance info, docs updates, change req, p.manag. plan updates, orgs. process asset updates)
Advice for Creating a WBS and WBS Dictionary
A unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS. The work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS items below it A WBS item is the responsibility of only one person, even though many people might be working on it. The WBS must be consistent with the way work actually will be performed; it should serve the project team first, and serve other purposes only if practical Project team members should be involved in developing the WBS to ensure consistency and buy-in. Each WBS item must be documented in a WBS dictionary to ensure accurate understanding of the scope of work included and not included in that item. The WBS must be a flexible tool to accommodate inevitable changes while properly maintaining control of the work content in the project according to the scope statement.
Suggestions for Reducing Incomplete and Changing Requirements
Develop and follow a requirements management process Employ techniques such as prototyping, use case modeling, and Joint Application Design to understand user requirements thoroughly. Joint Application Design (JAD)
info in Scope management plan
How to prepare a detailed project scope statement • How to create a WBS • How to maintain and approve the WBS • How to obtain formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables • How to control requests for changes to the project scope:
Scope Control
Inputs: The project management plan requirements documentation requirements traceability matrix work performance data organizational process assets Outputs: work performance information change requests project management plan updates project documents updates organizational process assets updates
Best practices to avoid major scope problems
Keep the scope realistic Involve users in project scope management Use off-the-shelf hardware and software Follow good project management processes.
Project Scope. managm.
defining all work and processes involved in project
WBS dictionary
document that provides detailed information about each WBS item and a definition of the work involved in the task—a clarification that makes the summary description
req division in IT projects
elicitation, analysis, specification, and validation
Scope validation
formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables. Inputs: The scope management plan scope baseline requirements documentation requirements traceability matrix validated deliverables work performance data Outputs: accepted deliverables change requests work performance information project documents updates
Requirements categs
functional requirements, service requirements, performance requirements, quality requirements, and training requirements.
scope baseline
includes the approved project scope statement and its associated WBS and WBS dictionary.
The main tools for performing scope validation
inspection and group decision-making techniques.
Project scope statements should include
product scope description, product user acceptance criteria, and detailed information on all project deliverables.
Key inputs for preparing the project scope statement
project charter, scope management plan, requirements documentation, and organizational process assets such as policies and procedures related to scope statements, as well as project files and lessons learned from previous, similar projects
