Requirements Management: Building Systems That Speak The Same Language

http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/innovate/

Dominic Tavassoli of IBM discusses the challenges posed by increasingly complex software to organizations. With the proliferation of software that interconnects systems, there is no longer a single value chain. Requirements management solutions are needed so that everyone involved is looking at the same version of the truth. The resulting architecture helps design all the interfaces and interconnections between the pieces. IBM Rational uses tools like Rational Doors to help define the requirements for the systems and makes sure we're all speaking the same language.

[Dominic Tavassoli, IBM]
Today there really are three different levels of challenges that organizations are having to address. First, the amount of software's just growing exponentially -- became more complex and more feature rich. But also the software itself has to interact with the mechanics, the electronics, all the systems engineering's getting more and more challenging. And the systems themselves are becoming parts of systems of systems, with lots of different partners, different industries, so those are really three different types of challenges that organizations need to address today.

One of the interesting things about a system of systems is that no one owns the full value chain anymore. There's a lot of different industries, a lot of the different stakeholders, and a lot of different components that evolve at their own speed.

To actually achieve that, that's really where you need advanced architecture products and requirements management solutions, requirements management solutions that everyone is looking at the same version of the truth. What are we trying to achieve and what are the roles? And then the architecture that helps us design all the interfaces and interconnections between the pieces.

IBM Rational helps build these systems of systems with solutions, for instance, for requirements management, with IBM Rational Doors, that helps you define the requirements for the systems and make sure we're all speaking the same language. But also architecture management solutions like System Architect, that help you define all the components and their interaction, and also, of course, best practices and templates, to help you get on track straightaway and learn from our collective experience as IBM.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• requirements management
• enterprise architecture
• IBM Rational Doors
• Rational
• System Architect
• management solutions
• IBM
• Dominic Tavassoli