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IN DEFENSE OF THE TRADITIONAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS PROCESS
Author(s) -
Grady Jeffrey O.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.1993.tb01601.x
Subject(s) - quality function deployment , process (computing) , requirements analysis , computer science , system requirements , function (biology) , requirements management , risk analysis (engineering) , systems engineering , non functional requirement , requirements elicitation , requirements engineering , quality (philosophy) , functional requirement , engineering , software engineering , operations management , software development , software , medicine , software construction , value engineering , philosophy , epistemology , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language , operating system
Some new requirements tools and techniques carry with them the suggestion that the traditional system requirements analysis (SRA) process is somehow deficient and passé. This paper re‐visits that process, expands its structured decomposition techniques to include alternatives to functional flow diagramming, augments it with structured interface, environmental, and specialty engineering requirements analysis and adapts it to the Integrated Product Development (IPD) approach. In the traditional SRA approach, it was never clearly explained how it began, leaving many to conclude that there was a chicken‐and‐egg problem hiding in there somewhere. It also was never clear where it ended (decompose as required). Some have concluded that the process has neither beginning nor end, only a very expensive middle producing paper of great mass but questionable utility. The traditional process also focused principally on performance requirements. It provided an effective demand driver for only one of three kinds of constraints and had little to offer for programmatic requirements analysis. All of these shortcomings are disposed of in this paper revealing a comprehensive, flexible, and robust approach to project‐wide requirements analysis linked to recent advances like quality function deployment (QFD), IPD concepts, and the U.S. Air Force integrated planning initiative. The process is described more fully in a new book about an old process titled System Requirements Analysis (Grady 1993).