32569 Enterprise Business Requirements
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Subject level:
Postgraduate
Result type: Grade and marksRequisite(s): 32557 Enabling Enterprise Information Systems
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.
Recommended studies:
principles of software engineering; adequate knowledge of software development processes; ability to conduct a critical review and analysis of scholarly research literature
Description
This subject introduces students to the processes, methods and tools that support the human-centred and communication-rich part of software and system development called requirements engineering (RE), also known as business analysis in practice. Current trends and challenges in RE are explored through studying professional practice and reviewing research literature. Students apply contemporary requirements elicitation, analysis, modelling, specification and validation techniques to case studies in small teams.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Introduce techniques for requirements elicitation and outline the challenges faced and skills needed, especially for negotiation and prioritizing requirements during elicitation. (B.1) |
|---|---|
| 2. | Write and manage effective software requirements specification that exhibits necessary quality attributes. (C.1) |
| 3. | Model and analyse software requirements using a range of available methods and tools. (D.1) |
| 4. | Critique, review, and inspect software requirements specifications to identify defects. (D.1) |
| 5. | Investigate the current issues and trends in RE research literature. Prepare a research report supported by credible evidence. (D.1) |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs):
- Socially Responsible: FEIT graduates identify, engage, and influence stakeholders, and apply expert judgment establishing and managing constraints, conflicts and uncertainties within a hazards and risk framework to define system requirements and interactivity. (B.1)
- Design Oriented: FEIT graduates apply problem solving, design thinking and decision-making methodologies in new contexts or to novel problems, to explore, test, analyse and synthesise complex ideas, theories or concepts. (C.1)
- Technically Proficient: FEIT graduates apply theoretical, conceptual, software and physical tools and advanced discipline knowledge to research, evaluate and predict future performance of systems characterised by complexity. (D.1)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject uses active learning strategies, which involves a combination of lectures, tutorials, role playing and workshops to support a practice focused learning strategy. It also includes elements of guided self-study learning. Students will be required to undertake a course on Lynda.com to develop their interviewing skills. This would be needed for assessment task 1 where students will work in small teams to play the roles of business analysts and learn how to conduct effective interviews with a customer to elicit the requirements for a software product. They will learn how to negotiate and prioritise user needs as well as modelling and analysing the elicited requirements. There will be out of class assessment of their interviewing skills. Students will apply specific technical writing skills to develop a complete set of software requirements specification (SRS). Students will conduct a formal inspection exercise in small teams through role playing and critiquing skills to discover defects in an already developed SRS. Students will also develop reflective skills to identify how they would improve their inspection activities. In this out-of-class assessment task students would have to collaborate together to complete the inspection exercise, which involves students critiquing the SRS and documenting the findings in a rigorous manner. Students are also expected to do research to find specific templates and processes. This is to be completed before the inspection meeting and will be discussed in the class where additional template and processes will be introduced.
Feedback for assessment tasks will be given to students two weeks after the due delivery date. Students will also receive continued feedback for their workshops and tutorial exercises on weekly basis. This will be administered by the tutor in the tutorial sessions where the deficiencies in the answers to problems are pointed out to students.
Content (topics)
- Fundamentals of requirements engineering
- Requirements elicitation techniques, tools and approaches
- Modelling and analysing requirements
- Software requirements specification
- Negotiating and prioritising requirements
- Validating and inspecting requirements
- Requirements Management
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Assignment 1: Software Requirements Specification writing (Group)
| Intent: | Learning is demonstrated through students' effective oral and written communications with a customer through role playing exercises to elicit software requirements for a given case study. Students will work in a small team to elicit, model and analyse customer requirements and write use cases. Students will also learn to negotiate with the customer and prioritise customer's needs and goals. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1 and 3 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): B.1 and D.1 |
| Type: | Case study |
| Groupwork: | Group, group and individually assessed |
| Weight: | 15% |
| Length: | The details of the deliverable will be given in the assignment sheet. |
Assessment task 2: Assignment 2: Writing Software Requirements Specification
| Intent: | To develop skills in writing complete Software Requirements Specification documentation. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1 and 2 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): B.1 and C.1 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Group, group and individually assessed |
| Weight: | 15% |
| Length: | The details of the deliverable will be given in the assignemnt sheet. |
Assessment task 3: Assignment 3: Software Requirements Inspection (Group)
| Intent: | Students will work in a small team to learn how to conduct a formal validation and inspection of an already developed Software Requirements Specification document in order to find defects in the document that may lead to erroneous software. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 3 and 4 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): D.1 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Group, group assessed |
| Weight: | 10% |
| Length: | The details of the deliverable will be given in the assignment sheet. |
Assessment task 4: Class participation
| Intent: | To give students ongoing practice for tasks that they need to carry out for assignements 1, 2 and 3. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): B.1, C.1 and D.1 |
| Type: | Exercises |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 10% |
| Criteria: | Students are expected to attend and actively participate in the exercises set for 10 tutorial classes. Students will receive 1 mark for each tutorial session for satisfactory participation assesed by the tutor. |
Assessment task 5: Final Examination
| Intent: | The final examination will assess students overall understanding of the Requirements Engineering disciplinary fundamentals, ability to critique systems for standard software specification quality attributes, and understanding of constrains, ambiguities and uncertainties in requirements. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1, 2, 3 and 4 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): B.1, C.1 and D.1 |
| Type: | Examination |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 50% |
| Length: | Two hours |
Minimum requirements
In order to pass the subject, a student must achieve an overall mark of 50% or more.
Recommended texts
K. Wiegers and J. Beatty, Software requirements: Third Edition, Microsoft Press, 2013.
References
There are no set textbooks prescribed for this course. Additional reading material will be suggested when necessary. References used to develop lecture notes will be listed at the end of lecture slides each week. Selected reading material that is included in the lecture slides will be made available to students on Canvas.
The following books contain additional reference and reading material. Copies of each are available in the UTS library and at FEIT learning precinct.
- K. Wiegers and J. Beatty, Software requirements: Third Edition, Microsoft Press, 2013.
- G. Kotonya and I. Sommerville, Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques, Wiley, 1998.
- I. Alexander and R. Stevens, Writing better requirements, Addison-Wesley, 2002.
- K. Wiegers, More About Software Requirements: Thorny Issues and Practical Advice, Microsoft Press, 2006.
- A. Cockburn, Writing Effective Use Cases, Addison-Wesley, 2001.
- I. Sommerville and P. Sawyer, Requirements Engineering: A good practice guide, Wiley 1997.
- A. Davis, Just Enough Requirements Management, Dorset House 2005.
Other resources
All course material will be made available on Canvas in time for the lecture of the relevant week.
Students MUST check announcements made on Canvas regularly, definitely before attending classes.