Quality Assurance in Requirements Management - Requirements Engineering and Management for Software Development Projects - page 94

engineers, and project leaders deliver the best results when the requirements
engineering activity is entrusted to them.
4. Software maintenance projects—again, in these projects too, functional domain
has little significance. Therefore, it is best that senior software engineers carry
out the requirements engineering activity.
5. Testing projects—To test a software product effectively, knowledge of the
functional domain is essential. Therefore, functional specialists or project
leaders who handled projects in the same domain earlier are best suited for
carrying out the requirements engineering activity.
Having right people is one thing but keeping them on the cutting edge of current
technology is another. Their skills need to be continuously honed. The role of
training in keeping the individuals up to date cannot be overemphasized. We
normally conduct the following types of trainings to requirements engineering
professionals:
1. Induction Training—We need to conduct induction training when a profes-
sional joins our organization. He/she might be proficient in the subject of
requirements engineering but he/she needs to be trained on the organizational
process, tools and techniques used in the organization. This will enable the
person to deliver results that are consistent with the results delivered by the
existing professionals.
2. Tool Training—we need to conduct training on the usage of tools and tech-
niques used in the organization for carrying out requirements engineering
activity. This training is conducted initially when an individual joins a new
organization and when a new tool is acquired by the organization.
3. Requirements Engineering Training—Often, organizations promote existing
programmers to take on higher responsibilities. Some of those promoted may
be able to handle requirements engineering activity. In such cases, they need to
be trained on the theory and practice of requirements engineering to prepare
them for shouldering the responsibility. They may be trained in-house or
sponsored to an external training program. If the individual is trained at an
external institution, the person needs to be put through the induction training
discussed above so that the organizational practices are imparted to the person.
4. Continuing Education—We conduct training periodically on the new devel-
opments in the field of requirements engineering. The periodicity of this type of
training varies from organization to organization and on the developments
taking place in the field.
5. Knowledge sharing—As we execute projects, the individuals gain fresh
insights and knowledge about the discipline. We organize this type of training
whenever a project is completed. This will be conducted by the persons who
worked on the completed projects sharing the experience gained on the project.
It would include sharing of the information on the successes and failures; best
practices and pitfalls; any special developments of the project. This will enable
all the professionals in the organization to have knowledge of all the projects
executed in the organization even though they did not work on all the projects.