Requirements Engineering Tasks

Requirements Engineering :
* Provides a solid approach for addressing challenges in software project.
* Must be adapted to the needs of the: Process, project and product and the people doing the work.
* Begins during the communication activity and continues into the modeling activity.
* Helps software engineers to better understand the problem they will work to solve.

Requirements Engineering Tasks :
- Inception
* A task that defines the scope and nature of the problem to be solved.
* Software engineers ask context-free questions.
* Intent is to establish a basic understanding of the problem, the people who want a solution, nature of the solution that is desired and the effectiveness of preliminary communication and collaboration between the customer and the developer.

- Elicitation
Ask the customer, the users and others about the objectives of the system, what is to be accomplished, how the system of product fits into the needs of the business and finally, how the system or product is to be used on a day-to-day basis.
Why Elicitation is Difficult?
* Problems of scope.
* Problems of understanding.
* Problems of volatility.

- Elaboration
* Basic requirements (obtained from the customer during inception and elicitation) are refined and modified.
* Focuses on developing a refined technical model of software functions, features and constraints..
* Driven by the creation and refinement of user scenarios.
* End-result: analysis model that defines the informational, functional and behavioral domain of the problem.

- Negotiation
* There’s no winner and loser in an effective negotiation.
* Customers usually ask for more rather than what can be achieved.
* Some proposed conflicting requirements.
* The requirements engineer must reconcile these conflicts through a process of negotiation.

- Specification
* It can be written document, a set of graphical models, a formal mathematical model,a collection of usage scenarios,a prototype,or any combination of these.
* It is the final work product produced by the requirements engineer.
* It serves as the foundation for subsequent software engineering activities.
* It describes the function and performance of a computer-based system and the constraints that will govern its development.

- Validation
* Work products produced are assessed for quality in this step.
* A task which examines the specification to ensure that all software requirements have been stated unambiguously.
* That inconsistencies, omissions and errors have been detected and corrected.
* That work products conform to the standards established for the process, project and the product.