What Is a Demand Note?

Requirements tracking refers to the entire process of tracking the life of a requirement. Requirements tracking includes the preparation of contact documents between each requirement and system elements. These elements include other types of requirements, architecture, other design components, source code modules, tests, Help files, etc. Requirements tracking gives us the ability to have a clear view of the entire process from requirements to products. Requirements Tracking Overview

Demand tracking

Right!

Requirements tracking refers to the entire process of tracking the life of a requirement. Requirements tracking includes the preparation of contact documents between each requirement and system elements. These elements include other types of requirements, architecture, other design components, source code modules, and testing. Help files, etc. Requirements tracking gives us the ability to have a clear view of the entire process from requirements to products. Requirements Tracking Overview

The purpose of requirements tracking is to establish and maintain the consistency between "requirements-design-programming-test" and ensure that all work results meet user requirements.

Chinese name

Demand tracking

Way 1

Forward tracking

Way 2

Reverse tracking

Collectively

Two-way tracking

There are two ways to track demand:

(1) Forward tracking. Check whether each requirement in the Product Requirements Specification can find a corresponding point in the subsequent work product.

(2) Reverse tracking. Check whether the design documents, code, test cases and other work products can be found in the "Product Requirements Specification".

Forward and reverse tracking are collectively referred to as "two-way tracking". Regardless of the tracking method used, a demand tracking matrix (ie, a table) must be established and maintained. The requirements tracking matrix stores the correspondence between requirements and subsequent work results.

The traceability link enables you to track the entire life cycle of a requirement, that is, from the source of the requirement to the lifetime before and after implementation. Traceability is a feature of excellent requirements specifications. In order to achieve traceability, each requirement must be identified uniformly so that it can be consulted clearly.

To some extent, demand tracking provides a way to show compliance with a contract or description. Furthermore, demand tracking can improve product quality, reduce maintenance costs, and make it easy to reuse.

The most common way to represent a chain of requirements between requirements and other system elements is to use a requirements tracking capability matrix. The following table illustrates this

Since the contact chain originates in the heads of the members of the development team, the requirements tracking capability cannot be fully automated. However, once the chain of contact has been identified, specific tools can help you manage huge tracking capabilities information. A spreadsheet can be used to maintain a matrix of hundreds of requirements, but larger systems require more "robust" solutions.

Business demand management tools with strong demand tracking capabilities use the tracking capability matrix as shown in Table 16-7. Requirements and other information can be stored in the tool's database, defining a chain of links between different objects, and even peer-to-peer links of similar requirements. Some tools need to distinguish the relationship between "trace back to (track in)" and "from..backtrack (track out)", and automatically define the relative link chain. That is, if you point out that the requirement R is traced back to the test instance T, the tool will automatically define the relative connection "T traces back from R". There are also tools that can mark the other end of the chain as "suspicious" after changes have been made to the other end. Allows you to check to make sure you know the subsequent effects of the change.

These tools allow the definition of "cross-project" or "cross-subsystem" contact chains. A large project with 20 subsystems, some high-level product requirements are based on multiple subsystems. In some cases, the requirements assigned to one subsystem are actually fulfilled by services provided by another subsystem. Such projects use business requirements management tools to successfully track these complex tracking capability relationships.

When you apply requirements tracking capabilities to manage your project, consider the following steps:

The decision on which link chains to define can be made with reference to Figure 2. Select the type of tracking capability matrix to be used, Table 1 or Table 2. Determine which parts of the product maintain trackability information. Start with key core functions, high-risk parts, or parts with heavy maintenance in the future. Revise the process and checklist to remind developers to update the contact chain when requirements are completed or changed. Develop a marked specification to uniformly identify all system elements to achieve the purpose of interconnection. If necessary, make a text record so that system files can be analyzed to facilitate reconstruction or update of the tracking capability matrix. Identify individuals who provide information for each type of contact chain. Train project team members to accept the concept and importance of demand tracking capabilities, the purpose of this event, where to store traceability data, and techniques for defining the chain of contactfor example, the characteristics of using demand management tools. Ensure that participants understand their responsibilities. Once someone completes a task, the tracking capability data must be updated immediately, that is, the relevant personnel must be immediately notified to update the contact chain on the demand chain. The data is updated periodically during the development process to keep track information in line with reality. If the tracking capability data is found to be incomplete or incorrect, it means that the effect has not been achieved.

Tracking capacity management of huge products with many subsystems is a huge project, but it is necessary. Not all companies have serious consequences due to software issues. However, demand tracking should be taken seriously, especially for information systems that are at the core of your business. After considering the cost of applying the technology and the risks of not using it, you can decide whether to use any improved requirements engineering practices. With the development of software, it is necessary to invest time in the place of great rewards.