Increasing Requirements Quality. Something from this presentation can be applied to increase requirements quality, no matter the type of project or industry: construction, IT, oil & gas, business process improvement. From a January 2013 webinar to PMI Requirements Community of Practice.

1. Project Auditors LLC
Requirements Quality
• Webinar given on January 24, 2013 to PMI
Requirements Community of Practice by
Joy Gumz, Project Auditors LLC
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LLC, and may not be reproduced without written permission.
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Agenda
• Introductions
• The challenge to create quality requirements
• What does quality mean?
• Ways to increase requirements quality
• Summary
• Q & A
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3. Project Auditors LLC
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LLC, and may not be reproduced without written permission.
Agenda
• Introductions
• The challenge to create quality requirements
• What does quality mean?
• Ways to increase requirements quality
• Summary
• Q & A
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LLC, and may not be reproduced without written permission.
What does quality mean?
• Do it right the first time
DIRTFT
• % rework <= target max %
• Setting a standard and meeting it
• Potential savings
– Lower percentage of rework
– Fewer changes
– Lower costs of external failure
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LLC, and may not be reproduced without written permission.
What does quality in
requirements mean?
• Requirements rework <= target maximum %
• Processes to collect and manage
requirement follow organizational guidelines
– Consistent use of templates, models and tools
• Requirements meet criteria at individual
level and for the requirements set
• Requirements reuse % > 0
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Why is the process of capturing and managing
requirements critical?
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Source: Applications Executive Council Survey, April 2004 . Orange Park, Fla.
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Cost of poor requirements
• 2004 Study by the State of Indiana Dept of
Transportation
– The study also found that the dominant
category of reasons for change orders is errors
and omissions , a finding which is suggestive of
possible shortcomings in current design
practices.
– 2001: $17M cost overruns…..2004: $60M
– INDOT was average compared to other states
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Source: An Analysis of Cost Overruns and Time Delays of INDOT Projects, 2004

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Cost of poor requirements
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Relative cost to correct a requirements defect depending on when it was caught
Source: Grady, Robert B. 1999. An Economic Release Decision Model: Insights into Software Project Management. In
Proceedings of the Applications of Software Measurement Conference. Orange Park, Fla.
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LLC, and may not be reproduced without written permission.
Agenda
• Introductions
• The challenge to create quality requirements
• What does quality mean?
• Ways to increase requirements quality
• Summary
• Q & A
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Requirements Documents
• Business Requirements Document
• Statement of Work
• Specifications
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• User scenarios
– A storyboard is one type
• Use cases
• User stories
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Requirements Documents
• Business Requirements Document
• Statement of Work
• Specifications
• Storyboards
• User scenarios
• Use cases
• User stories
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TIP 1
Choose the right document for the job
- User storyboards, user scenarios or
use cases for new development
- Use user stories for incremental
software releases
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Source: IBM Innovate Conference, 2010

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Use visualization tools
• Storyboards
• Building Information Modeling
– Use 4th Dimension: time to help visualize
potential problems during construction and/or
maintenance. 5th Dimension: cost. 6D: as built.
• Software tools
– Bentley, Autocad, Inventor, Blueprintsys.com
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TIP 2: Help user visualize the end product by using
storyboarding and/or simulation and visualization tools
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NASA study on written requirements
quality
1. Define the characteristics that should be
exhibited by a Business Requirements Document
2. Identify what could be measured
3. Develop indicators of quality
4. Develop a tool to perform the measurements
5. Analyze the BRD documents in light of the
reports generated by the tool
6. Identify underlying problems and
7. Develop recommended practices to preclude the
problems
Source: NASA Writing Requirements Guidelines, 2005
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Desirable Characteristics of
Individual Requirements
Unambiguous – Only
one possible
interpretation
Characteristics of the
Collection
Correct – accurately
describes functionality
required
Testable – can be
verified through test or
inspection
No design impact –
states what is required
but not how to build it
Achievable – is
practical within the
constraints
Traceable – must be
traceable to and from
source & ultimately to
a business need.
Complete – includes all
the requirements and
does not need further
amplification
Consistent –
requirements may not
conflict
Logically grouped –
essential for managing
and, if needed,
modifying
PrioritizedTIP 3: Keep these criteria in mind (e.g.
checklist) when documenting requirements.
Quality attributes
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Written requirements
• Indicators of strength and weakness
– Individual Requirements
• Imperatives (shall, must, will, should)
• Continuances (below, as follows, listed)
• Directives (figure, table, for example)
• Weak Phrases
– adequate, as a minimum, as applicable, easy, as
appropriate, but not limited to, capability of, effective,
if practical, normal
• Options Phrases (can, may, optionally)
Source: NASA Writing Requirements Guidelines, 2005
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Using Tables and Charts
• Identify each table and chart by a unique identifier.
• List each table and chart in the table of contents by title, unique
identifier and page number.
• Identify the purpose of the table or chart in the text immediately
preceding it.
• Explain each aspect or element of the table or chart (columns,
rows, symbols, blanks, etc.) from right to left then top to bottom.
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Source: NASA Writing Requirements Guidelines, 2005
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Tool for Analyzing Written
Requirements
• Based on NASA s ARM Tool
– http://www.solutionthree.com/sift-requirements-tool/
– More on NASA s guidelines
• http://www.projectauditors.com/Papers/writing_requirements_guidelines_NASA.pdf
• These LINKS Are Case Sensitive
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ARM = Automated Requirements Management
TIP 5: Use tool to analyze written requirements for quality related
metrics
TIP 4: Improve written requirements and specs by using NASA
guidelines
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Requirements Guidelines
• Terms & Definitions
• Requirements collection
• Management of changes
• Approval process
• Templates
• Tools
• Quality checklists
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TIP 6
Create organizational
guidelines that cover
these topics
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Why do requirements change?
• Reasons for changes related to design
– Design error
– Design omission
– Conflicting design information
– Late engineering change
– Field condition: reasonable for designer to check
– Field condition: unreasonable for designer to check
– Change required for constructability / operability
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TIP 7: Log reason for changes to requirements, perform root
cause analysis and implement corrective action
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Can you verify requirements to
improve quality?
Useful process BUT
You can not inspect in quality. Edward Deming
You can validate them as you go through the
project to make sure
1) requirements have not changed or
2) something new has not come up
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Summary: Guidelines to promote a
high level of quality in requirements
• Use simple, consistent definitions for requirements described in
natural language and use the business terminology that is
prevalent in the enterprise
• Follow organizational guidelines that describe the collection
techniques and the types of requirements to be collected that
will be used consistently across projects
- If no guidelines exist, the business analyst must select an appropriate set
of techniques
• Produce a consistent set of models and templates to document
the requirements
• Document dependencies and interrelationships among
requirements.
• Use tools that promote better understanding of product such as
visualization and simulation
• Perform root cause analysis of changes to requirements and
make corrective actions
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LLC, and may not be reproduced without written permission.
Contact information
Name: Joy Gumz, CPA, CISA, PMP
Email: jgumz@projectauditors.com
Phone: +1.949.452.0578
http://www.projectauditors.com
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LLC, and may not be reproduced without written permission.