Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In these projects, the product already exists and there is no need to go to the end
users again. Perhaps, the documentation and test plans also may exist in some
cases. The important activity is to locate the adjustment needed and effect it.
Everything is technical in nature as code verification is needed to locate the
differences.
Requirements engineering in these projects involves locating the adjustments
necessary to the existing code. It is best achieved by senior programmers.
Functional specialists are poorly equipped to come out with the necessary code
adjustments. Therefore, it is best to use senior programmers for carrying out
requirements engineering in these projects.
11.2.2.5 Partial Life Cycle Projects
A partial life cycle project can be any combination of the phases of the software
development life cycle. Normally the product implementation, requirements
engineering and the construction phases are outsourced. Software design is rarely
outsourced. Product implementation is one of the most outsourced projects. We
had examined the scenario of product implementation in one of the above sections.
That leaves us requirements engineering and construction.
For the projects involving requirements engineering, the only requirements to
be gathered are the timelines and the cost during project acquisition. These can be
handled by the marketing personnel. The project would be executed by business
analysts. Needless to say perhaps, these need to be functional specialists.
For construction projects in which the project involves developing the code and
conducting quality assurance activities conforming to a design document which is
usually supplied by the outsourcer. Here the need to understand the technical
aspects is more important than understanding the business functionality. There-
fore, senior programmers or the systems analysts are best positioned to carry out
the requirements engineering activity, which involves understanding the technical
aspects. In fact, there is no requirements engineering activity except to understand
the design document and deliver code adhering to that document.
Sometimes, only the requirements documents may be supplied and software
design may also be included in the construction projects. In those cases too, the
requirements are already established. So, there is no need for functional specialists.
The technical persons can handle the remaining little portion of the requirements
engineering activity.
11.2.2.6 Projects Developing Real Time Software
Real time software is used to control machines including cars, aero planes, CNC
(Computer Numerically Controlled) machines, rockets and many others. In fact,
there is hardly any machine in the present day that is not software controlled. In
this software, there are no business functions. There are only technical functions.
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