Requirements Engineering

from the Perspective of Competitive Advantage

by
Edwin B. Dean

At the 1994 INCOSE Conference I heard a requirement defined as "anything which constrains the system." Dean (1993f) notes that where there is an active constraint on the system, there is a cost associated with the constraint. Since requirements may be modeled as constraints, requirements engineering is a cost driver. Requirements should be derived from customer desires. Since value is a positive measure of quality and since quality is defined by the desires of the customers, requirements engineering is a value driver. Hence requirements engineering is a double barreled competitiveness driver.

Unfortunately, requirements come not only from the the customer for the system, but also from the management who controls the system to bring forth, sustain, and retire the product. Dean (1993f) alsonotes that the requirements imposed by management, either explicitely or implicitly, are far greater driver of competitive advantage than those which represent the structure of the system. In the past, these requirements have largely been ignored. The challenge for the future is to recognize and model these requirements as they relate to competitive advantage.

Function analysis is an integral component of requirements engineering. It is the basis of the abstract model (Jacobson, Christerson, Jonsson, and Overgaard, 1992) on which the implementation must be founded. It is a primary mechanism for generating design breakthroughs!

Quality function deployment stands out as a powerful, but relatively unknown, technology for representing and linking requirements throughout the life cycle. By treating management as a customer, the effect of the requirements imposed on the system to bring forth, sustain, and retire the product can be included.

Bibliographies

Requirements Engineering Bibliography

Surfing the Web

Requirements Engineering Newsletter
Requirements Engineering Research Group
The Requirements Engineering Specialist Group of the British Computer Society
Software Requirements Engineering

References

Dean, E. B. (1993f). "Why Does It Cost How Much," presented at the AIAA 1993 Aircraft Design, Systems, and Operations Conference, Monterey CA, 11-13 August, AIAA-93-3966.
Jacobson, I. , M. Christerson, P. Jonsson, and G. Overgaard (1992). Object-Oriented Software Engineering: A Use Case Driven Approach, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Wokingham, England.

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