Ford

Requirements Engineering

Thesis

The success of a project is very much dependant on an accurate, unambiguous and a well-developed requirements specification. A well researched and developed requirements specification would help avoid errors in the software which would otherwise prove to be too costly and time consuming to rectify.

Introduction

Requirements engineering forms the analysis phase of the software development life cycle. It represents the backbone for software development. Very often projects end up in failure because of the lack of proper requirements specification. With the growing complexity of software projects, the implications of a poorly drawn specification report become more serious. As per a Standish group report in the US, an estimated 30% of all commissioned projects are cancelled before completion and 60% of the completed projects are considered to have failed to meet the objectives. Another report from America's National Institute of Standards (NIST) shows that a whooping 56 $ billion is lost every year on lost or failed projects. [The Economist] Further, software industry holds the notorious record for delaying projects beyond schedule and incurring significant cost overunns. Microsoft’s ‘Longhorn’ delay is one good example of the prevailing trend. These facts suggest the problems associated with a lack of a clearcut , methodical approach towards software development. Having a well developed requirement specification report is the first and vital step in software development. The requirements specification report is drafted after a complete analysis of the user requirements. It is like the blueprint based on which the developers continue to model their project. The requirements specification report does not divulge into the technicalities of software development but rather the expectations that are to be met by the software product. A brief overview of the requirements engineering process will help highlight its importance in...