Refinement of the requirement definition concept in system development

Requirement definition is an integral part of system development and is a factor that contributes to the success of system development. Throughout the literature there are documented problems and issues with respect to defining requirements for system development. There is evidence to indicate that requirement definition is often not performed well, not communicated effectively, and is lacking measures. A comprehensive view of requirement definition is missing throughout the literature.

The objective of the research was to refine the requirement definition concept during system development by developing a comprehensive representation of the concept that is organized, coherent, unified and measurable. The researcher surveyed literature for existing information regarding requirement definition, such as requirement processes, models, issues, case studies, and measures. The researcher generated methods to synthesize and refine this information. Since a consensus or comprehensive requirement definition representation was not found in the literature, the researcher developed methods to determine the areas of requirement definition. Methods were developed by the researcher to determine the primary functions performed in each requirement definition area and the area interactions. The researcher developed measures for each area of requirement definition and these were used by the researcher to generate a requirement definition assessment audit to compare a project's requirement definition effort to the comprehensive requirement definition representation generated in this research. The assessment audit provides feedback to a project regarding strengths and weaknesses of the requirement definition effort.