This is part 4 of our discussion on margins and reserves. In Part 1 of this blog we introduced resource margins and reserves during development and operations. In Part 2 of this blog we addressed the demand side of the resource balance equation by going into more detail concerning the terms associated with resource margins and reserves […]
Tag: risk
Resource Margins and Reserves – Part 1, Introduction
Due to the complexity of this topic, I have divided this blog into multiple parts: – Part 1 introduces resource margins and reserves during development and operations. – Part 2 goes into more detail concerning the terms associated with resource margins and reserves for mass and consumables from a demand perspective. – Part 3 goes […]
Developing Agile Systems
In previous blogs we talk about Why do my requirements keep changing and Controlling and Managing Change during product or system development. Change can also be addressed from the perspective of change that happens after the product or system is put into operations. From this perspective the question to be addressed is: “Can the product […]
What Makes a Great Business Partner?
A colleague and I were talking about past projects. When I mentioned one of my favorites, he was surprised–he thought people found the business partner on that project to be “difficult”. Not me—she met all my criteria for a great business partner: They know their stuff. They provide you sufficient meeting time and respond to […]
How to Avoid Accumulating Technical Debt
In a popular online discussion group the following question was asked: “Why does technical debt accumulate? “Why do technical and functional project team members let that happen? What is technical debt? Personally, I had not heard the phrase “technical debt” before. Interested, I looked it up on the internet. What I found was that technical […]
Should the “testors” be involved in requirements development?
On more than one occasion, I have been asked about early involvement of the test team. To paraphrase a most recent question, I was asked:: “I have studied different articles about this new tendency of involving testers earlier in the project, namely during requirements analysis. This early involvement means that the tester gives input as […]
Requirement Metrics on the Stability and Risks of Requirements
On our Ask the Experts page, the following question was asked: “One subject that has been on the back of my mind is to find out how to provide a key metric to management about the stability of requirements. By this I mean like a risk factor (or something similar) that will help the program […]
Controlling and Managing Change
Controlling and managing change is one of the most important tasks for both the Project Manager and Systems Engineer. Failing to do so often results in massive cost overruns, schedule slips, and failed projects. In the previous blog “Why do my requirements keep changing?”, we talked about why requirements change. In this blog we discuss […]
Are the Requirements Attainable?
Attainability is a requirements development issue that is commonplace on many projects. Defining requirements without adequately assessing attainability places projects at risk of significant cost overruns, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls. Mandatory characteristics for any requirement is that it is Needed, Verifiable, and Attainable. I call these the NVA characteristics. In previous blogs “Do we […]
Importance of Doing the Upfront Work Before Design
We were recently asked by one of our clients about some methods that can be used to help drive home the importance of developing proper requirements at the right time…namely at the beginning of the project. Convincing those with whom we work the importance of doing the upfront work…the importance of defining scope and defining […]