Requirement Management Process

Pre-requisites: Software Engineering - Requirements Engineering Process

The Requirement Management Process is the process of managing changing requirements during the requirements engineering process and system development, where the new requirements emerge as a system is being developed and after it has gone into use.

During this process, one must keep track of individual requirements and maintain links between dependent requirements so that one can assess the impact of requirements changes along with establishing a formal process for making change proposals and linking these to system requirements. 

It belongs to one of the phases of the Requirement Engineering Process. 

Now during this phase, there needs to be a certain level of requirement management details which will help to make Requirement Management decisions. To accumulate the details for taking that decision one can follow the following processes: 

• Requirements Identification: In this, the requirement must be uniquely identified so that it can be cross-referenced with other requirements. Here, one can learn what is important and required and what is not and it also helps to establish a foundation for product vision, scope, cost, and schedule. 
• Requirement change management process: Is all about managing changes to the project’s requirements. It involves reviewing the impact and cost of any changes to make sure they’re properly assessed. The goal is to handle these changes smoothly, without causing major disruptions to the project.
• Traceability policies: The main purpose of this policy is to keep a record of the defined relationships between each requirement and the system designs which will help to minimize the risks. 
• Tool support: Tools like MS Excel, spreadsheets, or a simple database system can be used. 
  

Now, after the details have been gathered for the Requirement Management, it's time to see whether the change needs to be implemented or not. For this, we use the Requirement Change Management process. In this, the three basic steps that we follow are:

Working of Requirement Management Process

At first, the identified problem or the proposal for change is analyzed to ensure its validity. After the analysis of the problem is done, the result is given back to the specific change requestor who may either respond with a more specific requirements change proposal or decide to withdraw the request. Once it is done we have successfully moved to the second phase, where the analysis is done over the effect of the proposed change via traceability policies and general knowledge of the system requirements. Once this analysis is completed, we move to a point where the final decision is to be made on whether or not to proceed with the requirements change.

If we decide to implement the change then the requirements document and, where necessary, the system design and implementation, are modified. If we decide we do not want to implement the change we eradicate this problem and move to the next. Once the implementation i.e. modification is done as per the request, the implementation is revised and even modified in the document as well so that in the future it can be implemented. 

Finally, in this way, the Requirement Management Process is completed. 

Advantages of the Requirement Management Process

1. Recognizing the need for change in the requirements.
2. Improved team communication.
3. It helps to minimize errors at the early stage of the development cycle. 

Disadvantages of the Requirement Management Process

1. Time-Consuming: Managing requirements can take a lot of time, especially when there are many stakeholders involved. Constantly updating and tracking changes can slow things down.
2. Complexity: As the project grows, keeping track of all the requirements becomes more complicated. This can lead to confusion and make it harder to communicate clearly between teams.
3. Resource-Intensive: The process often requires extra resources, like special tools and dedicated people, to manage, document, and track all the changes, which can be expensive.