Requirements engineering support technique (REQUEST): a market driven requirements management process

Prior to consuming resources for product development, whether for a new product or enhancements to an existing product, the requirements of the product must be determined. This requirements process must be `market driven´ allowing product organizations to capture the `Voice of Customer´, and it must describe the requirements in understandable and measurable terms to be analyzed in order to identify solutions for the requirements. It must be a definable, repeatable, and predictable process. This paper is a synopsis of the requirements engineering support technique (REQUEST). REQUEST is a process for use by the planning and product development organizations of IBM Lines of Business (LOBs), which introduces technical and managerial discipline into the requirements process. It transforms systematically the many `Voices of Customers´ through various stages to a set of plan candidates by means of analysis, validation, and prioritization. It tracks and relates original requirements to plan items and vice versa