Requirements Analysis - Requirements Engineering and Management for Software Development Projects - page 54

Chapter 4
Requirements Analysis
4.1 Introduction to Analysis
When we complete elicitation and gathering activities of requirements manage-
ment, we have information in the raw form. When we analyze it, we would have
plausible requirements which after review and approval would transform into
project requirements.
Now what exactly is meant by the term ''analysis''?
Merriam Webster's dictionary defines the term ''analysis'', among others, as:
1. Separation of a whole into its component parts
2. Identification or separation of ingredients of a substance
3. An examination of a complex, its elements and their relations
4. A method in philosophy of resolving complex expressions into simpler or more
basic ones
The term ''analysis'' has a connotation of reducing complexity by breaking
down a whole into its component parts to understand how it works and provide
better insight into something. Most of us would have come across the following
analyses:
1. Chemical analysis—In this analysis, a substance is broken down into its
component parts. The science of Chemistry has many methods and chemicals to
break a substance down to its component parts. A substance that cannot be
further broken down except into its atoms is referred to as an element.
Chemical analysis is basically breaking down a substance into its elements.
2. Scientific analysis—this analysis helps in understanding a phenomenon using
scientific method. Scientific method is characterized by controlled and
repeatable experiments to test a hypothesis. In scientific experiments, all
variables except the ones which are being investigated/evaluated are controlled.
The scientific method is also characterized by the absence of bias. That is, the