The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing not only the way products work, but their design and development. Products are continuously becoming more complex with more lines of code and additional software—some of which allow for even greater connectivity. With requirements management, you can overcome the complexity and interdependencies that exist in today’s engineering lifecycles to streamline product development and accelerate deployment.

Issues in requirements management are often cited as major causes of project failures. 
Having inadequately defined requirements can result in scope creep, project delays, cost overruns and poor product quality that does not meet customer needs and safety requirements. 

Having a requirements management plan is critical to the success of a project because it enables engineering teams to control the scope and direct the product development lifecycle. Requirements management software provides the tools for you to execute that plan, helping to reduce costs, accelerate time to market and improve quality control.

Requirements management plan (RMP)
A requirements management plan (RMP) helps explain how you will receive, analyze, document and manage all the requirements within a project. The plan usually covers everything from initial information gathering of the high-level project to more detailed product requirements that could be gathered throughout the lifecycle of a project.

Key items to define in a requirements management plan are the project overview, requirements gathering process, roles and responsibilities, tools and traceability.

Requirements management process
When looking for requirements management tools, there are a few key features to look for.

A typical requirements management process complements the systems engineering V model through these steps:

• Collect initial requirements from stakeholders
• Analyze requirements
• Define and record requirements
• Prioritize requirements
• Agree on and approve requirements
• Trace requirements to work items
• Query stakeholders after implementation on needed changes to requirements
• Use test management to verify and validate system requirements
• Assess the impact of changes
• Revise requirements
• Document changes

By implementing these steps, engineering teams are able to harness the complexity inherent in developing smart connected products. Using a requirements management solution helps to streamline the process so you can optimize your speed to market and expand your opportunities while improving quality.

Digital requirements management
Digital requirements management is a beneficial way to capture, trace, analyze and manage requirements changes. Digital management ensures that changes are tracked in a secure, central location and it allows for strengthened collaboration between team members. Increased transparency minimizes duplicate work and enhances agility while helping to ensure that requirements adhere to standards and compliance.

Requirements attributes
A “good” requirement has certain characteristics like being:

• Specific
• Testable 
• Clear and concise
• Accurate
• Understandable
• Feasible and realistic
• Necessary

Sets of requirements should also be evaluated and should be consistent and nonredundant.

Some of the benefits of requirements management include:

• Lower cost of development across the lifecycle
• Fewer defects 
• Minimized risk for safety-critical products
• Faster delivery
• Reusability 
• Traceability 
• Requirements tied to test cases
• Global configuration management

The product manager is typically responsible for curating and defining requirements. However, requirements can be generated by any stakeholder, including customers, partners, sales, support, management, engineering, operations and product team members. Constant communication is necessary to make sure that the engineering team understands changing priorities.

Engineering requirements management software enables you to capture, trace, analyze and manage changes to requirements in a secure, central and accessible location. This approach strengthens collaboration, increases transparency and traceability, minimizes rework, and expands usability. A digital solution also enhances project agility while making it easier to adhere to standards and maintain regulation compliance.

There are several benefits to using digital requirements management:

• Live collaboration: Work in real-time, anywhere. Your team members can share information in and between documents, irrespective of location.
• Reuse: Use the same requirement in multiple places without having to redefine it. You can create baselines to identify the state of a requirement in real-time to reduce the occurrence of user errors.
• Traceability: Maintain a full history of changes in requirements so you can respond quickly to audits. Your team can see what changed, who changed it and when it changed.
• Consistency: Organize relevant information logically and easily in a way your team and stakeholders understand. You can sort requirements by priority, risk, status and category.
  

By using AI, engineering teams can more easily flag poorly written, incomplete and ambiguous requirements while receiving real-time coaching on how to improve them. IBM® watsonx.ai™ scores requirements based on quality indicators and offers suggestions that can make them clearer, consistent and complete. By adding AI to your requirements management strategy, you can strengthen the quality of your requirements while reducing errors and costs.