1. Assign Attributes
Usually there is a requirements management plan which defines the Requirements Attributes to be tracked for each
type of requirement. Important attributes are Benefit (from the stakeholders' perspectives), the Effort to implement,
the Risk to the development effort, the Stability (likelihood to remain unchanged), and Architectural Impact (is it
architecturally significant) of each requirement.
The Benefit and Stability are set in consultation with the stakeholders. Effort and Risk are set in consultation with
the system architects. Architectural Impact is set by the system architect.
Unstable requirements with high risk, high effort, or high benefit should be flagged for more analysis. Low benefit
requirements with high effort, risk, or instability should be flagged for potential removal.
2. Establish and Verify Traceability
There should be a definition on how requirements types are traced to other work products. You must establish the
required Traceability, and periodically use traceability reports to ensure that traceability is maintained in accordance
with the plan.
3. Manage Changing Requirements
Requirements changes are managed according to the plan. Some additional guidelines:
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Reassess requirements attributes and traceability: even if a requirements hasn't changed, the attributes and the
traceability associated with a requirement can change.
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Manage change hierarchically: a change to one requirement might have a "ripple" effect that affects other related
requirements, design, or other work products. To manage this effect, you should change the requirements from
the top down. Review the impact on the requirements work products, then the design work products, and then the
production material. Be sure to manage the impact of requirements change on the test effort.
Traceability reports are useful in determining the potentially affected elements.
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