Lecture 1 Instructor: Salma Imtiaz

Words of Wisdom
The problem is that we sow different

than what we expect to reap. You will reap what you sow.
If anyone does a righteous deed it ensures to the benefit of

his own soul; if he does evil it works against (His own soul). In the end will ye all be brought back to your Lord. AlQuran (45:15)

Definition
Requirement engineering is a sub discipline of

software engineering that is concerned with determining the goals, functions, and constraints of software systems. OR Requirements Engineering is a branch of computer science that encompasses tasks that go into determining the requirements of a new or altered system

Requirement Problem
What is the ultimate objective? Quality Software On time Within budget That meets users needs!!
Dont lose sight of the goal!

Requirement Problem
How do we measure: Quality User needs User need satisfaction

Requirement Problem
Each activity in the SW development process must

work these objectives, or

Its an inefficient use of resources

Why is RE important
Different types of customer COTS Bespoke (customized) software

Problem
Do we know who all the users are? Do users know what they want? Can users afford what they want?

Study by Standish Group 1994

United states
Each year $250 billion are spent on IT application development of

approx 175000 projects. Average cost of development project Large company = $2322000 Medium company=$131000 Small company=$434000 31% projects gets cancelled before they get completed 52.7% of projects will coz 189% of their original estimates American companies spend $81 billion for cancelled projects $59 billion for software projects that will be completed but will exceed original time estimates

The Chaos Report (1995)

It has been conducted among 365 IT managers from companies of various size and in various economic sectors.

The OASIG Study (1995)

It has been conducted in the UK among 45 experts

issued from universities and co Key Findings

The main reasons why systems fail to meet their

objectives were identified as:

Lack of attention to the human and organizational aspects of IT. Poor project management. Poor articulation of user requirements. Inadequate attention to business needs and goals. Failure to involve users appropriately.

ESPITI (European process improvement training institute) Survey (1995)

based on 3800 responses

Capers Jones Study (1994)

56% of defects due to Reqs & Design! Coding defects many but easy to fix

Cost of Fixing Requirement Errors

Continued
Cost of fixing defects Number of corporate studies document cost of fixing errors Cost progressively increases as SW process continues 100-fold increase in cost to fix in Maintenance vs. Requirements phase A Requirement defect propagates into design, coding, etc. defects

Effect defects can cause Requirement

Re specification, redesign, recoding, retesting Re-educating customers/users Refunding money Product recalls Warranty costs, legal judgments

They can cause 25% to 40% of the total project budget

 Why do projects succeed?

16% User involvement 14% Executive management support 12% Clear requirements

Conclusion
These broad-based studies suggest Key to successful SW project is

Ongoing communication with the user to elicit requirements Thorough documentation of requirements User validation of documented requirements Maintenance of requirements as they change Traceability of requirements throughout project to ensure theyre implemented

This requires a disciplined SW process