 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
  |
||||||||||||||||
|
|
Requirement Engineer Organization
In a previous tip we discussed the different Requirement Engineer organizational styles. This month, let's look a little deeper into the centralized Requirement Engineer organization. If your organization style is decentralized in full, or a combination of matrix and aligned, it is important that the functions are implemented somewhere, at either the project or divisional level.
The Requirement Engineering Organization
The Requirement Engineering organization would have a manager that should report directly to the head of a specific business unit, the Chief Executive Officer or the Chief Information Officer. Reporting any lower in the organization will minimize organization focus and will increase the risk of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. This manager will potentially be a member of the planning board, enabling him/her to be the first to hear of corporate direction and new initiatives. They can then align the requirement engineering organization to assist from the beginning... building quality requirements from the beginning. Each of the three oriented groups would report to the requirement engineering manager. Each would have a divisional or department charter that defines its role and responsibilities in a manner that describes the benefits they provide to achieving corporate goals. This person must ensure that the three departments work together towards producing quality requirements. This person will be required to "sell" the benefits of following a quality requirement engineering process and using skilled requirement engineers on all types of projects (including mission critical, maintenance and non-technology oriented projects). Process Oriented defines quality assurance (proactive) activities as it relates to requirements engineering. All of which would assist, and not impede, the development of quality requirements. One special note is the evaluation and recommendation of tools and techniques. It is important that the process-oriented group supply options to the different projects. Each project will be different, and each project will have special needs. The requirement engineering process-oriented group should not dictate their bias, but assist in the selection of what would be best for the specific project. This group should continually evaluate new and different techniques and tools, develop a selection criteria, and work with the project manager for each project. The Project Oriented group consists of the requirement engineers who elicit, analyze, specify and validate the requirements. They use the techniques and tools that are recommended by the process oriented group. They document the requirements using the approved standards and processes that are defined by the process group. The project oriented group is matrix (or aligned) to the project manager. They supply input to the process-oriented group as to improvements to the process, standards, techniques and tools. The Management Oriented group is responsible for configuration management activities as it relates to requirements. This means coordinating the change control process and all activities that ensure the integrity of the requirement set through all the change control states.
Top of Page | View Current Tip | Get Tips in Your Email!
|
|||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
SBDi is available to assist your organization in defining the charter for these different requirement engineer hierarchies. These can be implemented in any style your organization chooses.
