Aviarc Agility Centre
Feature Manager
Introduction and Purpose
Past research has identified that the cost of making a change to a system at the point when requirements are defined is many times cheaper than making the same change once the system is being developed or maintained. It is therefore important that before development starts, the requirements of an application are as well defined and as close to the business user's needs as is possible.
In many organisations, Microsoft Word documents are used to document and manage requirements. General collaboration techniques (meetings, email, phone calls etc) are used to develop requirements and then the documentation of requirements is done. Some techniques (e.g. the Volere Requirements Specification Template) formalise the content of requirements and requirements documents which helps maintain the quality and consistency of requirements and documents.
While using Microsoft Word documents provides significant documentation freedom to the requirements writer, the same freedom can be an impediment to the writer's ability to fully capture and manage requirements and their history:
- Requirements documents rarely are consistent in structure;
- Document formatting can distract the user from the content;
- Managing revisions, versions and distribution of the documentation can be difficult when done manually;
- Historical discussions are generally stored in email or offline.
Once written, a requirements document is likely to become out-of-date quickly as it is unlikely to be updated as the project progresses and changes to requirements occur. Due to the documentation having no links into the system it describes, it becomes very difficult to trace implemented features from the application back through to the business requirement requesting the feature.
The Aviarc Feature Manager is designed to provide full management of the discovery, approval, usage and integration of business user's requirement over the life of an individual project.
The Software Solution
Zoom The Aviarc Feature Manager.
The Feature Manager facilitates:
- Building and managing a database of the requirements for the lifecycle of the system.
- Linking the requirements to the delivered user screens to facilitate user interaction and acceptance, and system development.
- Compliance with all governance and usability requirements by using an enterprise standard set of requirements.
- Allowing time-based queries or auditing of the requirement sets and comparisons of requirement versions.
Zoom Adding a new feature.
- Allowing automatic email of changed or new requirements to developers or users flagged as "watching" the particular development.
- Facilitating communication between the user, Aviarc Consultant and outsourced developers.
- Regular iteration between developers and business users either directly or through the Feature Manager.
- Automated document generation so formal documentation (e.g. Project Schedules) can be generated directly from the stored information.
Linkages
Zoom Managing features and linkages with external systems with the Aviarc Feature Manager.
A key element of the Feature Manager is that external system linkages can be identified and linked to external systems. A requirement can be linked to a issue or code tracking systems such as Bugzilla, providing a convenient and automatic link between a business requirement and the changes made to the software code that implement the requirement.
The Feature Manager will be tightly integrated with the Aviarc Collaborative Documentation system in future releases of Aviarc. This will allow requirements to be linked to application screens and UI elements directly, allowing users to view requirements directly at the point where they're implemented.
Summary
The Aviarc Feature Manager is an online tool for the management of requirements for ESS development. The Feature Manager provides variety of features that integrate with the Aviarc methodologies and Aviarc Development Suite.
While the use of the Feature Manager is not a magic wand, its consistent use will improve the quality, correctness and completeness of requirements.