Premium
Managing requirements in a product family approach to systems engineering
Author(s) -
Lam Wing
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
systems engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.474
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1520-6858
pISSN - 1098-1241
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6858(1999)2:1<46::aid-sys4>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - reuse , product (mathematics) , requirements management , requirements engineering , key (lock) , process management , process (computing) , systems engineering , requirement , computer science , new product development , risk analysis (engineering) , engineering , business , software , geometry , mathematics , computer security , operating system , marketing , programming language , waste management
Increasingly, organizations are considering a “product family” approach to systems engineering (SE). A product family enables large‐scale reuse across similar systems, so reducing development costs and delivery time scales. Organizations must manage the requirements for a family of related systems in addition to individual systems. Unfortunately, a literature review reveals an absence of guidance in this area. Drawing on experiences from three case studies, this paper offers practical advice on managing requirements for product families, including requirements planning, determination, review, and evolution. The paper refrains from prescribing specific techniques, notations, or tools, as these are not generally transferable across organizations. Instead, attention is centered on the capability areas and key practices that are necessary to underpin requirements management in a product‐family SE approach. It is proposed that, with appropriate tailoring, the key practices can help project managers define a requirements process suited to their own product family. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Syst Eng 2: 46–55, 1999