2.110.1 Requirements Engineering Directive

Manual Transmittal

August 12, 2019

Purpose

(1) This transmits revised IRM 2.110.1, Requirements Engineering, Requirements Engineering Directive.

Material Changes

(1)

  • Modified RE Directive per IRM internal control requirements.

  • Included agile and lean methods as part of requirements engineering approach to scope.

  • Under Organizational Directives, updated Tools Management and Support.

  • Under Organizational Directives, updated Quality Assurance and Process Compliance, Including Review.

  • Updated Program/Project Directives section.

Effect on Other Documents

IRM 2.110.1 dated September 23, 2015 is superseded.

Audience

The Requirements Engineering Directive is applicable to all Information Technology (IT) organizations, contractors, and other stakeholders having responsibility for developing IT business processes.

Effective Date

(08-12-2019)

Chief Information Officer

Program Scope and Objectives

  1. This document describes the formal Information Technology (IT) policy for implementing the requirements of the Requirements Engineering (RE) process. It provides the purpose, scope, authority, and mandates for institutionalizing this process.

  2. Purpose - The purpose of this directive is to establish the Requirements Engineering Program Office’s (REPO) authority and responsibility for the definition, execution, and oversight of the Requirements Development and Requirements Management process areas, hereafter referred to as RE. This directive clarifies expectations for REPO to support the establishment and advancement of the RE discipline, and the expectations of all Programs and Projects that develop or maintain systems within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

  3. Audience - The Requirements Engineering Directive is applicable to all Information Technology (IT) organizations, contractors, and other stakeholders having responsibility for developing IT business processes.

  4. Policy Owner - REPO under Business Planning and Risk Management

  5. Program Owner - REPO is responsible for the development, implementation, and maintenance, of this directive. Approval of this directive, including updates, rests with the REPO Office.

  6. Primary Stakeholders - All Programs and Projects that develop or maintain systems are required to perform requirements engineering processes and associated activities in accordance with this directive.

  7. Program Goals - REPO is responsible for defining, developing, updating, and institutionalizing the RE discipline to facilitate program/project implementation of quality requirements that accurately reflect the needs of the business and its customers. The RE discipline includes, but is not limited to, requirements elicitation, definition, and management leveraging traditional and agile methods, lean principles, supported by model-based approaches, business rules, visualization, and textual-based requirements. This directive, along with REPO training, guidance, coaching, material, and tools, supports all defined Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) paths at the IRS.

Background

  1. Inefficiencies and gaps in program and project RE execution as recognized through external and internal process audits necessitated having established guidelines and principles that help minimize waste, training to disseminate knowledge, and coaching for individualized assistance and support. Further efficiency and waste reduction may be realized through an incremental and more agile development model promulgated by REPO.

Purpose
  1. The purpose of this directive is to establish the REPO authority and responsibility for the definition, execution, and oversight of the Requirements Development and Requirements Management process areas, hereafter referred to as RE. This directive clarifies expectations for REPO to support the establishment and advancement of the RE discipline, and the expectations of all Programs and Projects that develop or maintain systems within the IRS.

Scope
  1. All Programs and Projects that develop or maintain systems are required to perform requirements engineering processes and associated activities in accordance with this directive and are subject to REPO review and risk reporting to ensure compliance. The RE discipline includes, but is not limited to, requirements elicitation, definition, and management leveraging traditional and agile methods, lean principles, supported by model-based approaches, business rules, visualization, and textual-based requirements. This directive, along with REPO training, guidance, coaching, material, and tools, supports all defined ELC paths at the IRS.

  2. REPO’s RE Authority and Responsibilities are further described in Paragraph 1.3.1 in the Organizational Directives.

Authority

  1. REPO is responsible for the development, implementation, and maintenance, of this directive. Approval of this directive, including updates, rests with the REPO Office. All proposed changes to this directive must be submitted to REPO.

Mandate

  1. The following section is broken down into Organizational and Program/Project Directives. Organization Directives are those followed by REPO to define and institutionalize RE across the IRS. Program/Project Directives are those that must be followed by all Programs and Projects at the IRS.

Organizational Directives
  1. Definition: REPO is responsible for defining, developing, updating, and institutionalizing the RE discipline to facilitate program/project implementation of quality requirements that accurately reflect the needs of the business and its customers. REPO’s definition of the RE methodology supports all ELC paths, and is also inclusive of but not limited to waterfall and agile approaches.

  2. Education and Training: REPO is responsible for making education and training available to personnel in overall RE methodology, supporting best practices, tailoring, RE methodology implementation as applicable to software development life cycles, and use of supporting requirements tools.

  3. Mentoring and Coaching: REPO assists and partners with program and project teams to effectively implement the RE discipline and raise the team’s RE skill level. REPO provides available support for the development and management of requirements through all periods of system development, and for any development approach the project may employ. The level of assistance is tailored to criticality, scope of need, and resources.

  4. Tools Management and Support: REPO supports projects by ensuring requirements engineering methodology and standards are enforced by various Commercial Off the Shelf tools. These tools include but are not limited to: Rational DOORS Next Generation, Rational System Architect, Rational Team Concert, Rational Publishing Engine, Rational Reporting for Development Intelligence, and Justinmind. These tools aid projects with business solutions planning, analysis, business process modeling, operational concept development, business solution architecture, business rules and requirements development, visualization and simulations for requirements development, collaboration among the development team, business, and stakeholders, management of lifecycle activities throughout development, project/program and organizational improvement, and strategic planning.

  5. Quality Assurance and Process Compliance, Including Review: REPO will assist Programs and Projects in assuring adherence of RE processes and RE products against REPO methodology and process guidance. REPO holds compliance approval authority of RE work products and artifacts identified in the ELC. At its discretion or by authorized REPO management request, REPO will review selected system initiatives for RE quality and compliance with RE process and methodology guidance. Feedback will be provided by REPO aimed towards process improvement and subject to disposition by the project. Significant findings will be communicated to the governing organization(s) and may result in a project/program improvement action, and/or a Milestone Readiness Review Conditional Exit documented in the ELC Office Memo to the Governance Committee and recorded as risks by the project.

  6. Process Improvement: REPO will revise and extend the RE process, including activities, roles, responsibilities, methods, tools, and templates. It will continue to improve education and training material, delivery and availability, and coaching and consulting services execution, based on feedback, lessons learned, and ongoing industry analysis. REPO will work with all process owners to further improve the Software Development Life Cycle.

Program/Project Directives
  1. To ensure compliance to REPO guidance, all Programs and Projects shall do the following:

    • Follow the ELC: In accordance with the selected ELC path, complete all requirements activities, ELC deliverables, and submit appropriate Data Item Descriptions to REPO for approval.

    • Training: Prior to conducting RE activities, ensure training is received by personnel on the objectives, guidance, principles, and engineering approaches for performing RE activities, and proper use and application of RE Tools according to REPO defined methodologies.

    • Scope: Define, analyze, and document scope and requirements using models, rules, visualization, user stories, and statements in a way that maximizes understandability, completeness, maintainability, and aligns with REPO guidance.

    • Tool Usage: Manage all requirements, collaborative life cycle management functions, and trace relationships using a REPO supported tool in conjunction with a REPO defined template and usage model.

    • Release Allocation: Prioritize requirement artifacts and allocate them against releases, sprints, and development increments.

    • Monitor RE Execution: Monitor execution of the RE process against the plans that define and control development activities and take appropriate corrective action when necessary. This includes responding to all feedback from REPO reviews.

    • Analyze Requirements: Utilize modeling, rules, visualization, and other REPO supported techniques to elaborate and decompose requirements to a level that can be understood by the business and built against by the development team. Reusable Program Level Requirements must be assessed to ensure that Section 508, Security, Privacy, Operational, Custodial Financial, IPv6, etc., are incorporated into the system design and development.

    • Visualization: Programs, projects, or releases with a user interface will leverage visualization to specify user interface requirements, screen flow, and design. The visualization supports detailed user interface requirements.

    • Traceability: Create and maintain requirement trace relationships that results in an integrated set of requirements, work products, and components. Trace relationships will be established and maintained in a REPO supported repository in adherence to that repository’s REPO standard.

    • Validation: Involve stakeholder(s) in validating the RE artifacts throughout the life cycle to make sure the user’s needs are met. Stakeholder(s) should also be involved in validation activities, such as the Customer Technical Review or End of Sprint Checkpoint Review.

    • Verification: Engage in Peer Reviews of RE work products throughout development to identify defects early. Establish trace relationships to test cases to verify that the requirements have been met.

    • Change Management: Incorporate change management into the development process through ongoing validation and iterations. Leverage requirements-related measures as appropriate to monitor and control progress against the project plans and identify scope creep. Apply appropriate change management processes when the degree of change exceeds the defined scope of the effort.

    • Configuration Management: Place RE artifacts under configuration management levels of control in accordance with IRS CM policies, directives, processes, and procedures and in support of the reporting standards established within the ELC Data Item Descriptions.