Author: Heather Havenstein
Publisher: Computerworld
With more and more organizations practicing geographically distributed development and offshoring, there is an increased need to improve requirements management processes. This article looks at how Lufthansa Systems, a Germany-based maker of revenue management systems for airlines, replaced a paper-based method of getting user requirements to development teams with a requirements management tool, as a means to overcome problems with communicating software requirements to internal developers working in Budapest.
May 29, 2006 (Computerworld) The continuing worldwide broadening of software development organizations -- either with internal employees dispersed geographically or through the use of offshore outsourcers -- is further forcing IT operations to improve requirements management processes.
Lufthansa Systems, for example, a Kelsterbach, Germany-based maker of revenue management systems for airlines, turned to a requirements management tool to overcome problems with communicating software requirements to internal developers working in Budapest, said Rainer Bartholdt, head of service management.
The tool set, the MKS Integrity Suite from MKS Inc. in Waterloo, Ontario, replaced a paper-based method of getting user requirements to development teams, Bart-holdt said.
The company has been using the MKS integrated source-code repository and requirements management tool set for about 10 months, Bartholdt said. The tool captures business and technical requirements and then links those to developer tasks. It uses predefined workflows to notify users of changes throughout the process, he said.
"Now we have a straight connection from the high-level software requirements to the definitions of the features and the different source-code files," Bartholdt said. "It is transparent to see how requirements are being met with source code."
When companies move development offshore, whether using internal employees or outsourcing firms, they often find that the traditional, informal methods of laying out requirements -- such as in a casual conversation -- don't work anymore, said Carey Schwaber, an analyst at Forrester Research.
"Their previous lack of discipline doesn't apply, and they don't find out until the software is delivered and it doesn't do what they wanted it to do," Schwaber said.
To bridge the gap between contract developers in Chicago and India, the California State Automobile Association opted to add a simulation tool that provides business users with visual representations of the interface of a new application before any coding is done, to ensure that it meets their needs.
A.J. Goldsmith, vice president of IT plan services at the San Francisco-based automobile association, credits the iRise Studio simulation tool from iRise Inc. in El Segundo, Calif., with cutting development costs by 25% in a project to replace several large legacy systems. In addition, use of the tool has cut testing cycles by 25%, he said.
"Developers can actually see what the end user is expecting," Goldsmith said. "We have a much better picture of what is expected earlier and can hit most of the marks right upfront."
The association plans to use the tool for new projects starting this year, including one to develop a portal.
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