Requirements Life
Cycle Management
BSA/BSAIS 3
Topic Outline:
INTRODUCTION – WHAT IS TASKS IN RLCM CHALLENGES AND BEST
REQUIREMENTS LIFE CYCLE PRACTICES
MANAGEMENT?
• Requirements Life Cycle Management
(RLCM) is a knowledge area in business
analysis that describes the tasks that
business analysts perform to manage
What is and maintain requirements and design
information.
RLCM? • Its primary purpose is to maintain the
quality, consistency, and alignment of
requirements with stakeholder needs
and organizational goals.
Introduction
• The requirements life cycle:
• Begins with the representation of
a business need as a
requirement;
• Continues through the
development of a solution, and
• Ends when a solution and the
requirements that represent it are
retired
Introduction
NEEDS REQUIREMEN DESIGN SOLUTION
TS
• The RLCM knowledge area includes the
following tasks:
Tasks in • Trace Requirements
• Maintain Requirements
RLCM • Prioritize Requirements
• Assess Requirements Changes
• Approve Requirements
• Trace requirements – this is to ensure that
requirements and designs at different levels
are aligned to one another
• Manages the effects of change to one level
on related requirements
• Traceability enables:
Tasks in • Faster and simpler impact analysis;
RLCM • More reliable discovery of inconsistencies
and gaps in requirements;
• Deeper insights into the scope and
complexity of a change; and
• Reliable assessment of which
requirements have been addressed and
which have not
Tasks in RLCM
• These are the several types of relationships to
consider when defining the traceability approach:
• Derive
• Depends
• Satisfy
• Validate
• Maintain Requirements – this is to retain
requirement accuracy and consistency
throughout and beyond the change
during the entire requirements life cycle,
and to support reuse of requirements in
other solutions
• The requirements that are candidate for
Tasks in long-term use by the organization are
RLCM identified, clearly named, defined and
stored in a manner that makes them
easily retrievable by other stakeholders.
• Requirements can be reused:
• Within the current initiative
• Within similar initiative
• Within similar departments
• Throughout the entire organization
Tasks in RLCM
• Prioritize requirements – to rank requirements in the
order of relative importance
• Interdependencies between requirements are identified
and may be used as the basis for prioritization
• Typical factors that influence prioritization:
• Benefit • Dependents
• Penalty • Time Sensitivity
• Cost • Stability
• Risk • Regulatory or Policy
Compliance
• Assess Requirements Changes – is
performed as new needs or
possible solutions are identified
• When assessing changes,
business analysts consider if each
proposed change:
• Aligns with the overall strategy
• Affects value delivered to the
Tasks in RLCM business or stakeholder groups
• Impacts the time to deliver or
the resources required to
deliver the value
• Alters any risks, opportunities
or constraints associated with
the overall initiative
Tasks in RLCM
• When considering changes or additions to existing requirements,
business analysts assess the impact of the proposed change by
considering:
• Benefit
• Cost
• Impact
• Schedule
• Urgency
Tasks in RLCM
• Approve requirements – this is to obtain agreement on and approval of
requirements and designs for business analysis work to continue and/or
solution construction to proceed
• Elements:
• Understand stakeholder roles
• Conflict and issue management
• Gain consensus
• Track and communicate approval
Challenges and Best Practices
Challenges Best Practices
Scope creep Effective communication
Incomplete requirements Regular reviews and validation
Lack of stakeholder engagement
Conflicting priorities
Thanks be to God
