Building smarter products with requirements engineering

1. Building smarter products
To support your business objectives
Requirements engineering solutions for
developing smarter products.
Products are becoming smarter. There In the past, companies maintained sep-
Highlights are now computer chips in everything arate sets of requirements for software,
from running shoes to cars to coffee electrical or mechanical components,
■ Captures and prioritizes product makers. And as products become more but this approach made it difficult to
requirements to help drive devel- interconnected, instrumented and intel- ensure that all of these components
opment decisions ligent, the marketplace becomes even would work together effectively when
more volatile and competitive. the product was assembled. Com-
■ Manages requirements through-
panies developing complex product
out the development lifecycle to
That’s why it’s more important than ever offerings need to make sure that all
support traceability
to ensure that you’re managing your components work together to deliver
■ Encourages collaboration from development process properly. You the desired result. Requirements must
stakeholders need to make sure that if you invest in drive development decisions through-
developing a complex product, it will out the product development lifecycle,
■ Maintains an audit history pay off. Product success hinges primar- so that when changes are made to the
and preserves change records, ily on how well the product addresses product design during development,
helping support compliance the needs of the marketplace. So they can be checked against existing
with regulations and contrac-
capturing and prioritizing these require- requirements to ensure that all require-
tual agreements
ments is essential. Adding to these ments are still being met. And product
■ Helps you respond to changes challenges are growing numbers of testing must be done against specified
with robust change manage- regulatory compliance requirements. requirements to make sure you’re not
ment capabilities Managing them can be difficult, and just delivering a system that works, but
there can be steep financial penalties also the system that you set out to build.
for lack of compliance.

2. Rational DOORS software also inte- Teamcenter technologies. It also inte-
“The Best-in-Class are able to
grates with other IBM products, giving grates with BigLever Software Gears
manage the challenges of sys-
you access to a broad range of features technology to provide requirements
tems engineering by providing
and capabilities. It integrates with: management capabilities for similar
for a multidisciplinary approach,
products in a product line, and with
improving collaboration across • IBM Rational Focal Point™ software,
The MathWorks Simulink solution for
disciplines, testing the per- for capturing and evaluating ideas
model-based design and simulation of
formance of the entire system for new products or product features,
dynamic systems. These integrations
earlier in development stages and then feeding the chosen features
help you use requirements to drive
through simulation, and formally into Rational DOORS software.
decisions throughout the design, devel-
tracking design requirements.”* • IBM Rational Change software,
which enables you to implement opment and quality assurance phases.
— Aberdeen Group
a customizable enterprise-wide
Uniting stakeholders through greater
change control process.
collaboration
Managing requirements throughout • IBM Rational Synergy software, for
tracking requirements through to For your requirements to be truly valu-
design, development and testing
software implementation. able, you need to have input from all
IBM offers a requirements engineering
• IBM Rational Quality Manager of the relevant stakeholders. Rational
solution that enables you to manage
software, which enables you to DOORS software helps you manage
requirements throughout the entire
link your requirements with your all of your requirements in a central
design, development and testing
test plans. repository, so all of your stakeholders
lifecycle, helping to ensure you have
• IBM Rational Rhapsody software,
®
have access to the most up-to-date
end-to-end traceability. From ideas,
which provides modeling and simula- version of the requirements. Plus, your
requirements and feature definitions, tion capabilities that enable you to teams can collaborate through infor-
product and system specifications visualize requirements scenarios and mal discussions and lock document
and models to mechanical, electric trace requirements back to designs.
sections for editing, allowing multiple
and embedded software implemen- • IBM Rational Requirements
users to work in the same document
tation, testing and maintenance, the Composer software, for capturing
without creating conflicts. Role-based
IBM solution can help you deliver a requirements gathered via inter-
access controls enable you to govern
high-quality system that meets your views and workshops with your
who can view and edit your company’s
customers’ needs. customers or partners.
projects, documents, requirements and
The solution is built around IBM Plus, Rational DOORS software attributes, so you can make sure only
Rational DOORS software, a leading
® ® integrates with product development authorized users are making changes.
requirements management applica- management solutions—such as
tion that can help you reduce costs, PTC Windchill (using the Stoneworks
increase efficiency and improve quality Ambassador product), Dassault
by enabling you to optimize require- Systèmes ENOVIA and Siemens
ments communication, collaboration
and verification — throughout your orga-
nization and across your supply chain.
2

3. Capture, collaborate and manage requirements
Case study: Delphi unites global
throughout the product development process teams for more-cost-effective reuse
Link feature value and Link systems and software
requirements planning IBM Rational development lifecycle
requirements engineering Challenge
IBM product IBM Rational
IBM Rational Delphi, a leading supplier of
portfolio software delivery
software delivery
management Human Electrical platform
platform mobile electronics and transporta-
machine Software engineering Mechanical Test
interface specs specs specs plans tion systems, needed to improve
specs
communication among globally
diverse development teams so they
Using the Rational requirements engineering solution, you can link all your engineering disciplines to
could be more productive when
product requirements and business objectives. working on parallel releases with
shared requirements. The company
Using requirements to drive the develop- Responding to changes with robust
sought an automated requirements
ment process with enhanced traceability change management capabilities management solution that could
Your product development process Product development is rarely a promote cost savings through com-
needs to be driven by your require- predictable process. The marketplace ponent reuse.
ments — requirements can’t be changes, customer needs change.
Solution
an afterthought. Rational DOORS That’s why it’s essential to be able Delphi selected Rational DOORS
software enables you to trace require- to respond to these changes quickly software after running a year-long
ments throughout the development and easily. Using Rational DOORS comparison with a third-party tool.
process, so you can make sure that software, you can establish trace- Rational DOORS software helps
give the company’s global teams
requirements are properly imple- ability links between requirements,
unprecedented accessibility to
mented. The application maintains models and test plans. You can then
requirements, making it easier to
an audit history and can preserve all create dynamic views that help you share requirements for parallel
changes. So you can monitor and to evaluate what will be affected by development. They can also import
report on overlooked requirements, a requirement, model or test case requirements from the repository
over-engineering or “gold plating,” and change — before the change is made. for reuse in new projects.
requirements creep — keeping every- Key benefits
one’s focus on achieving the original Plus, when an object is changed,
• Improved ability to meet cus-
project objectives. These reports help related objects are flagged, so you
tomer requirements
demonstrate compliance with regula- can immediately see that they may • More accurate management
tions and standards, and conformance be impacted by that change. You of costs
to contractual agreements. can then take the appropriate action • Enhanced development team
to ensure that changes don’t have communication, resulting in
unexpected and costly results. The faster time to market
integration with Rational change
management software also enables
automated notification, routing and
approval processes for requirements
change requests — helping ensure
project control and accountability.
3

4. Why IBM? For more information © Copyright IBM Corporation 2009
IBM provides an integrated solution To learn more about how IBM can help IBM Corporation
Software Group
that enables you to manage require- you develop the right requirements Route 100
ments throughout the entire design, engineering solution for your company, Somers, NY 10589
U.S.A.
development and testing lifecycle, contact your IBM representative or IBM
Produced in the United States of America
helping to ensure you have end-to-end Business Partner, or visit: September 2009
traceability. Unlike “point solutions,” the All Rights Reserved
solution based around IBM Rational ibm.com/software/applications/plm IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Rational, and
DOORS are trademarks or registered trademarks
DOORS software is designed to help of International Business Machines Corporation in
manage complexity, address compli- the United States, other countries, or both. If these
and other IBM trademarked terms are marked
ance with regulations and standards, on their first occurrence in this information with
scale to support large and complex a trademark symbol (® or ™ ), these symbols
indicate U.S. registered or common law trade-
projects, and enhance collaboration marks owned by IBM at the time this information
across engineering disciplines and with was published. Such trademarks may also be
registered or common law trademarks in other
all stakeholders. The application offers countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is avail-
capabilities that can help you reduce able on the Web at “Copyright and trademark
information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
development costs, increase productiv-
Other company, product, or service names may
ity, reduce time to market and improve be trademarks or registered trademarks or service
product quality. Keep up with the marks of others.
rapidly evolving marketplace and take References in this publication to IBM products or
services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
advantage of an integrated solution that available in all countries in which IBM operates.
can help you develop smarter products. The information contained in this documentation
is provided for informational purposes only. While
efforts were made to verify the completeness and
accuracy of the information contained in this docu-
mentation, it is provided “as is” without warranty of
any kind, express or implied. In addition, this infor-
mation is based on IBM’s current product plans and
strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without
notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any dam-
ages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related
to, this documentation or any other documentation.
Nothing contained in this documentation is intended
to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warran-
ties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or
licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the
applicable license agreement governing the use of
IBM software.
Each IBM customer is responsible for ensuring its
own compliance with legal requirements. It is the
customer’s sole responsibility to obtain advice of
competent legal counsel as to the identification
and interpretation of any relevant laws and regula-
tory requirements that may affect the customer’s
business and any actions the customer may need
to take to comply with such laws. IBM does not
provide legal advice or represent or warrant that
its services or products will ensure that the cus-
tomer is in compliance with any law.
* Michelle Boucher and David Houlihan, System
Design: New Product Development for Mecha-
tronics, Aberdeen Group , January 2008.
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