Maintain Requirements for Re-use - Business Analyst

Purpose

To manage knowledge of requirements following their implementation.

Description

Identify requirements that are candidates for long-term usage by the organization. These may include requirements that an organization must meet on an ongoing basis, as well as requirements that are implemented as part of a solution.

To re-use requirements they must be clearly named and defined and easily available to other analysts. These requirements may be stored in a repository, and a person should be identified to manage the repository. When an existing requirement must be modified it can be accessed from the repository for re-use.

Maintenance of requirements can facilitate impact analysis of new, proposed changes to the business, reduce analysis time and effort, assist in maintenance of previously implemented solutions, and support other activities, including training, corporate governance, and standards compliance.

Input

Organizational Process Assets: These set standards regarding how and when requirements should be maintained for re-use.

Requirements: Requirements may be maintained for re-use as long as they describe information of use to the organization beyond the lifetime of an initiative. Requirements will usually be candidates for maintenance only if the describe the actual current state of an organization.

Elements

1. Ongoing Requirements

Ongoing requirements are those requirements that an organizational unit is required to be able to meet on a continuous basis. These may include contractual obligations, quality standards, service level agreements, business rules, business processes, or requirements describing the work products the group produces.

2. Satisfied Requirements

Even though a requirement has been satisfied, it is still a requirement as long as the business stakeholders need it. Maintaining these requirements helps with product enhancements and future system changes. Existing requirements may also be re-used on related business projects.

Techniques

None.

Stakeholders

Business Analyst: Re-used requirements are very likely to be used by a different business analyst than the author at some unknown future date. It may be necessary to revise and update the requirements documentation to ensure that it is self - explanatory.

Domain SME: Ongoing requirements are likely to be referenced by Domain SMEs on a regular basis to ensure that work products meet them.

Implementation SME: These requirements are likely to be used for a variety of purposes, including development of regression tests and impact analysis of enhancements.

Output

Requirements [Maintained and Reusable]: The output of this task are requirements that are expressed in a form that makes them suitable for long - term usage by the organization (even in the absence of the stakeholders who originally defined the requirements). They may become organizational process assets or be used in future initiatives or projects. In some cases a requirement that was not approved or implemented may be maintained for a possible future initiative.