Requirements management in large software system development

초록

The management of requirements is an essential element of software development to ensure program success. As software systems become increasingly large, the management of their requirements becomes increasingly challenging. This paper summarizes an approach to software systems requirements management, called "engineering baselines" that has been developed to address those challenges. There are three primary dimensions of those requirements management challenges as addressed by the engineering baseline approach: Machine processing of system text, especially the requirements statements, Correlation [tracing] between requirements and all other system elements, including hardware components, code modules, test cases, user manuals, and design specifications, Change consideration and control. There are three principal features of the engineering baseline approach: Structuring [and decomposing to lowest level] requirements statements [and all other system lists, descriptions, designs, etc.] into separate, autonomous, stand-alone statements called system elements, Numbering, with a unique system number to each system element, Maintaining history of changes and correlating [tracing] all system elements using their unique system numbers.