Definition of an RM Process and Supporting Tool Landscape for a central IT Department
The Challenge
The central IT department of a major car manufacturer had developed a software development process and a toolbox of software development tools to support that process. However, Requirements Management was not part of either.
HOOD was asked to define an RM-Process and supporting tool landscape. An RM-Tool was already widely in use. Important process interfaces were to the customer’s quality model and development process for software projects. The RM-Tool had to interface to existing tools from the following disciplines:
- a) Project Management
- b) Configuration Management
- c) Change Management
- d) Test Management
- e) UML Modelling
Meeting the challenge
HOOD ran a course on Requirements Management for the various tool owners, before eliciting their requirements on the RM process. The requirements were consolidated and prioritised with those stakeholders. An RM process was subsequently defined. For each of the associated disciplines, existing integration solutions from the various tool vendors were analysed for their robustness and conceptual suitability. Interface contracts covering process and tool aspects were defined with those persons responsible for each discipline / tool. The concepts were reviewed and accepted by the internal customers of the central IT department. Preparations were made for piloting the results.
Figure 1 Process and Tools
Customer Value
At the end of the project the customer had an agreed process definition and a list of suitable tool integrations with associated concepts. These formed the basis with which the customer was ready to approach his own internal customers regarding piloting the process and tool integrations.
