Executable Requirements Management Model Interim Report ‐ May 1998

This interim document is published as a status report, as a repository for current work, as an introduction for people who may consider working on this project, and as a working document for use by persons who may participate in the effort. The model description is expected to expand and change substantially at the next revision. Purpose This report describes the status and currently planned characteristics of an executable requirements management model description that was undertaken by the INCOSE Requirements Working Group at its meeting at the INCOSE 1997 Symposium in Los Angeles. When completed, this model will simulate the flow of requirements through an organization or process. Of course actual requirements will not be contained in the model. Instead, they will be represented by data packets containing attribute data. These requirement packets may correspond to a single requirement "shall" statement in a specification and are identified by unique ID attributes. The model will be of use to process developers, practitioners, and theoreticians, and its purposes and benefits include: • Clarifying of our thinking by determination of a minimal system. You have to understand what you mean and be self-consistent in order to create an executable model. • Providing a structure for research to lead to • A better understanding of the effect of process parameters and configuration. For example, the effects of a concurrent engineering team. • A better understanding of the process parameter differences among various applications, such as aerospace development, commercial software development, etc. • Identifying essential requirement attribute data for complete requirement management systems. • Providing a model for program planning and cost estimating. • Providing data to improve systems engineering processes. Status After its proposal and outline by Requirements Working Group co-chairman and project leader David A. Jones at the working group meeting at the INCOSE 1998 Symposium, model development has followed two paths. The working group generic model, which was based somewhat on the diagrams of Figures 1 and 2 in the working group paper (Jones et al 1997), was further developed at the working group's winter meeting in Minneapolis, and subsequently by individual effort. Following a posting on INCOSE-discuss news group several people expressed interest in working on the model. Further work was accomplished at the INCOSE winter workshop in Dallas in January, 1998. However, this work as limited by the inability to attend by most people interested in this project. In the …