Soft audit Checklist・No8: Requirements management technology (general)
- 1. We will introduce the check items of the software development audit checklist in order.
- 2. The first of the three elements of software development technology is the confirmation of requirements management.
- 3. Check items for overall requirements management
- 4. Next to overall management is reliability and availability
We will introduce the check items of the software development audit checklist in order.
Software development auditing is an auditing method that Gutara’s father arbitrarily named to determine the capabilities of software development contractors. Overview of software development audit and pre-preparation of the audit at the time and the work of the audit on the day for, have been introduced in other articles. Also, please refer to another article for the points when using the audit checklist used in software development audits .
In the articles before and after this, we will introduce each item of the following four types of soft audit checklists in order.
- Development process checklist
- Checklist of requirements management for the first development technology
- Checklist for the second test of the developed technology
- Third design and implementation checklist for development technology
In this article, following the development process checklist introduced in the previous article, we will introduce each check item for the requirements management checklist. The points when using the requirements management checklist are introduced in the article on Soft Audit Practice / Audit Day No. 8: Requirements Management Checkpoints, so I think it will be easier to understand if you read that as well. increase.
The first of the three elements of software development technology is the confirmation of requirements management.
Software development technology is more important than the development process in order to create high-quality software, and requirements management is very important. The simple story is that without technology, a product called software cannot be created, and if the requirements for what to make are unclear, the product will be out of focus.
In the software development audit, in addition to the software development process introduced in the previous article, the skill of the other party is judged from three perspectives regarding software development technology . Requirement management that conveys the required specifications to the subcontractor, design and implementation at the subcontractor, and confirmation by testing when receiving the deliverables from the subcontractor .
In this article, I will introduce the first requirements management checklist. Since the software development audit is a mechanism created by Gutara’s father, this checklist does not have any rules or standards. My father, Gutara, just made and used this kind of thing without permission, but I think that it can be used to introduce software development audits related to requirements management, so I will post it here, so please refer to this as well. Please see the article.
(Click to open pdf)
The requirements management checklist has one check item per line, and there are six columns in the horizontal direction. The usage of the six columns is the same as the checklist of the development process, so about how to use each column For, see Soft Audit Practice / Checklist Part 1: Development Process (Requirements Management) in the previous article .
The requirements management checklist is classified into the following seven major items, and ID numbers with the initials of each classification are attached.
- Overall (GE-) : Confirmation of overall requirements management items
- Reliability (RE-) : Confirmation of reliability requirements
- Availability (AV-) : Confirmation of requirements regarding availability (the nature of features that are always available)
- Maintainability (SA-) : Confirmation of maintenance requirements such as adding functions and fixing defects
- Security (SE-) : Confirmation of security requirements
- Acceptance conditions (TR-) : Confirmation of requirements for acceptance of completed software
- Development management (TR-) : Confirmation of requirements for development management methods
Let’s introduce them in order. I think it will be easier to understand if you read the article while looking at the requirements management checklist.
Check items for overall requirements management
The first is item for the entire requirements management, but in fact these items are initially other had a (Others). While conducting software development audits several times, it seems that something less important than other items if it is a major item, so I changed the name to the item related to the whole from the middle . So, obviously there are some items that are related to the whole, and some items that should be classified as others, but please do not worry too much.
[Item number: GE-0 ]
Unfortunately, it is often the case that software development begins when some of the required specifications have not yet been finalized . In addition, there is also a development style in which the study design and implementation of the required specifications are performed in parallel, so it is necessary to consider the development process on the assumption that there are undetermined required specifications. It is not difficult, and it is only necessary to have a development process that records undetermined requirement specifications and manages them firmly, and the work is being carried out steadily, so check the management status of undetermined requirement specifications concretely. To do.
[Item number: GE-02 ]
The required specifications of the product must be written without omission of the standards and regulations that must be complied with . If you need to obtain certification to prove that you meet the standards , these must also be specified. If you design normally, you will not overlook it, but you need to be careful when the country where you sell the product and the country where you design / manufacture it are different .
With technical standards, picking up everything you need is not that difficult for an experienced engineer. However, when it comes to regulations and regulations of other countries, it is often difficult to understand, so it is necessary to take some measures such as asking someone who is familiar with the situation in the other country. Including such points, we will check the required specifications, paying attention to whether the regulations of the country in which the product is sold are fully described.
[Item number: GE-03 ]
Performance is also an important item in the required specifications. In general, performance has a big influence on cost price . Simply put, you can make a high-performance product by spending money. But no matter how good the performance is, if your competitors sell it at a lower price, you won’t be able to buy your product. How much development cost and parts cost should be allocated to improve which performance is an important part of planning a product that sells .
Then, the policy was determined by the product planning in order to communicate securely to contract manufacturers, the requirements of the performance is as much as possible Specifically , the quantitative It is important to have been written in requirements specification. We will check carefully whether the required specifications are vague, such as good performance.
[Item number: GE-04 ]
As the keyword " connected " has come to be heard by the general public, it is becoming less common for devices to be used alone, and it is becoming more common for devices to be connected to some kind of system and provide services in cooperation with each other. I did.
When the device is installed in the system and operated, policies and protocols may be decided by the system regarding the method of abnormality detection and response, the method of software version upgrade, etc., so the device side also supports them. You will need the ability to do this. In such a case, there may be individual standards that are different from the industry standards, so we will stop and check whether the required standards and specifications are clear.
[Item number: GE-05 ]
This is not a problem when developing and manufacturing a completely new device, but if a similar device is already used in the market and a successor model is developed and manufactured , pay attention to the compatibility specifications. need to do it. Especially when it functions as a part of some system as introduced in GE-04, it is fully compatible so that even if you remove the old model and replace it with the new model, it will work immediately without doing anything. Sex is required.
On the other hand, in the case of a device that operates independently, if it is a successor model, it is required that the functions and performance are improved . We will pay attention not only to the word “compatibility" but also to make it clear what kind of background and what kind of compatibility is required.
[Item number: GE-06 ]
Interoperability must be clear when the device is used in connection with other devices or devices . If the required specifications clearly state what version of software and what version of software the equipment to be outsourced for development or manufacturing needs to operate, the outsourcee will mutually interact with those equipment or equipment. You can perform tests to ensure connectivity .
In other words, if the required specifications for interoperability are unclear, we do not know what to connect and test, so connect a typical device and a device that happens to be at hand and operate for the time being. It may be judged that it is OK by checking . But this can lead to connectivity issues found after the product is actually shipped. Therefore, if there is an item called interoperability in the required specifications, check whether the content is specifically written.
Next to overall management is reliability and availability
After reviewing overall management, we will discuss reliability and availability within requirements management in the next article.