Requirement Management: The Search for Nirvana by Donald J. Reifer - Article Example

The paper "Requirement Management: The Search for Nirvana by Donald J. Reifer" is a good example of an article on management. Management of requirements in software development is essential because a change in requirements intensely affects the cost and schedule. Reifer points out that software engineers are taught to spell out the requirements at the start of the project and not to change. Reifer asserts that software engineers create requirements specifications because specifications form the foundation of software engineers’ design and coding activities. The involvement of the user or customer in the development of requirement specification is because of cost and schedule impacts. Reifer explains in the current software development environment the waterfall lifecycle has been replaced by rapid prototyping and application methods. Reifer points out that requirements development is a learning process and not a gathering process ( Reifer 45). 

Reifer observes that working with the user or customers’ guarantees success in the development of requirements specification. It is evident that the development of requirements specifications can take longer than software development. It is true that teams that develop requirements specifications spend hours checking each version of the requirements specification are complete, consistent and traceable. Reifer describes the quick to a market commercial environment where software engineers interactively create requirements using a spiral model. The phases of the cycle provide software engineers with details regarding the product's design and basic functions. Reifer looks at the rapid development paradigm the software development where the team comprises marketing and system engineering people, users, customers, and the software engineer. These team works together to formulate the expectations, which are then communicated to the software engineer (Reifer 46).
The continuous exploration and refinement observed in the spiral model allow the customers and requirements definition team to understand the purpose of the product. Reifer observes that achieving success in software development is possible if software engineers maintain and allocate budget and schedule reserves aimed at addressing changes. Successful management of requirements requires clear objectives, teamwork, discipline, and knowledge. Clear objectives identify the purpose of the requirement and the probable user of the requirement. Teamwork requires that software engineers take up the identity of a generalist to enable their ideas to complement those of the user and requirement specification team. Discipline allows the requirement development team to use a process method and tools appropriate in defining requirements and tracking the changes. Finally, knowledge of the application and environment the requirement will operate in is crucial. Software engineers are beneficial because they can help non-software people in explaining the consequences of their specification requirements (47). Read More