Training Units for Requirements Engineering

Requirements Engineering can be seen as a collection of methods, tools, and good practices, which follow a certain canonical sequence. This page presents a pragmatic process model, and training units for its steps. You can use this model as a guideline for your own RE projects, and adapt it where useful.

Process Model
Method Trainings
Block 1: Context
- 1) Analysis of stakeholders, system context, and goals
Block 2: Continuous Activities
- 2a) Glossary & Domain Model
- 2b) Quality Assurance
Block 3: Informal Requirements
- 3) Informal Requirements
Block 4: Formal Requirements
Block 5: Detailed Requirements
- 5a) Use Cases
- 5b) Agile backlog

Process Model

There is no universally agreed process model for Requirements Engineering (i.e. a framework that proposes a sequence of steps). Therefore, I have proposed the following “pragmatic” model, based on literature research and own practical experience.

Feel free to adapt and customize this model in own projects. It also serves as base for the method training units that we will go through in the RE course. These blocks are explained below.

Process Model

Method Trainings

The following sections list five blocks of method trainings.

These trainings will be created by the students in the course.
Each subteam will take over one block.
Content and rough structure is provided as part of the course material (see below).
- Same goes for some literature to start from.
The trainings should focus practical exercises rather than theory. This means:
- Make sure that the relation between “powerpoint presentation” and “the group works an exercise” is at least 1/3 - 2/3
- better: 1/4 - 3/4
Provide a short cheat sheet for you course mates when preparing the training.
- Here is the template that you can use.
- Hard rules: Max. 2 Pages! No change of font size (11 pt) or line height!

Block 1: Context

1) Analysis of stakeholders, system context, and goals

Training: Sponsor & stakeholders

Motivation: What do I need this for?
Term Definition
Guiding questions to find stakeholders
Stakeholders vs. stakeholder roles
Techniques for prioritizing / classifying stakeholders
Necessary data to capture & document

Training: System context

Motivation: What do I need this for?
Term Definition
Difference context / system boundary
System context elements, and how to find them

Training: Interview techniques

Motivation: What do I need this for?
Good practices for preparing and conducting an interview
Structuring a questionnaire
Documenting and evaluating the results

Training: Goals

Motivation: What do I need this for?
Term Definition
Rules for goal wording
Methods for structuring goals (e.g. fishbone diagram)

Block 2: Continuous Activities

2a) Glossary & Domain Model

Training: Glossary

Motivation: role of ubiquitous language according to Evans
Method "noun analysis"
Governance for maintaining a glossary

Training: Domain Model

Motivation: benefits of a domain model
Domain Model as simple UML Class Diagram
Use of Multiplicities

Training: Entity Status Model

Motivation: States of a domain object
When to use state model?
Modelling states as UML State Diagram

2b) Quality Assurance

Training: Quality assurance methods

Motivation: What do I need this for?
Quality criteria for requirements
Principles of quality assurance
Continuous quality assurance (e.g. definition of done)
Review methods

Block 3: Informal Requirements

3) Informal Requirements

Training: Requirements capturing methods

Motivation: What do I need this for?
Four types of requirements capturing methods
What to use when?
Creativity techniques as workshops

Training: Surveys

Motivation: When to use surveys?
Empirical aspects
Questionnaire design
Tools

Training: Personas

Motivation: What are personas good for?
Persona templates - when to use what
Do's and Don'ts
Techniques for developing personas

Training: Scenarios

Motivation: benefits of scenarios
Classification: scenario types - when to use what?
Examples for scenario types

Block 4: Formal Requirements

4a) Functional Requirements

Training: Functional Requirements

Motivation: What is the benefit of such a 1-sentence form?
Difference between goals and functional requirements
Potential problems (fuzziness) in functional requirements - how to detect & how to fix them
Sentence templates

4b) Non-Functional Requirements

Training: Non-Functional Requirements

Motivation: difference between functional and non-functional
Classification of non-functional requirements
How to obtain non-functional requirements
Examples

4c) Priorization & Conflicts

Training: Priorization & Conflict Resolution

Motivation: What do we need priorization for?
Overview on priorization methods
Classification according to effort / what to use when
2-phase priorization
Conflicts during priorization
Conflict classification and resolution approaches

Training: Kano factors

Motivation: Kano as a priorization method
Term definitions
What requirements collection methods (see 3) work well for what Kano type?
Check matrix for determining Kano type

Block 5: Detailed Requirements

5a) Use Cases

Training: Use cases

Motivation: benefits of use cases
Use case diagrams
Coffee break / user happiness test
Rules and templates for use case scenarios
Derivation of use cases from functional requirements, scenarios, and personas

Training: Activity diagrams as addition / alternative to UC scenarios

Motivation: when does it make sense to use a diagram?
UML Activity Diagram elements
Transformation of textual scenario into activity diagram
Swimlane types

5b) Agile backlog

Training: Themes, Epics, User Stories

Motivation: why Agile?
Principles for an agile backlog
Term definition: theme, epic, user story
User story template

Training: Agile estimation & user story decomposition

Motivation: Why should a user story be small?
Agile estimation techniques
How large is too large?
10 ways of user story decomposition