Lessons Learned From Use of a Computer‐based Requirements Management Tool in the Environment of a Project Configuration Control Board
Abe Meilich · INCOSE International Symposium · 1996
Abstract This paper presents some lessons learned and experience gained in Requirements Management (RM) utilizing a computer‐based tool in conjunction with a Configuration Management process and with the oversight of a Project Configuration Control Board. Computer‐based RM tools should help facilitate systems engineering on large complex system development projects. But, sometimes, the drive to either develop tools or purchase Commercial Off‐The‐Shelf (COTS) RM tools early in the life of a project is often done without a thorough understanding of the process, environment, or culture in which the tools will be used. The individual or group responsible for tool procurement are often not the same as those that will have to manage the tools as part of an overall systems engineering process. Those who are responsible for procuring the tool sometimes get caught up in the flexibility and number of features the tool provides (i.e., typical vendor selection criteria checklists), only to find out later that the flexibility which the final tool choice has must be severely constrained, in order to manage and report the requirements and their dependencies to the Project Configuration Control Board. Even though taken from actual experience, the specifics of the actual projects used as a model and the computer‐based tool names have been deliberately removed from this paper to better focus on the issues addressed in the paper.