Requirements Analyst Job Description

Description The requirements analyst or engineer is the individual who has the primary responsibility to elicit, analyze, validate, specify, verify, and manage the real needs of the project stakeholders, including customers and end users. The requirements analyst/engineer is also known as a requirements manager, business analyst, system analyst, or simply analyst. The requirements analyst serves as the conduit between the customer community and the software development team through which requirements flow. A requirements analyst is involved at some level throughout the entire system or software development life cycle. pon establishment of the requirements baseline, the focus is shifted towards the management of the requirements specification and verifying the fulfillment of all requirements. The requirements engineering function is a project role, not necessarily a job title. The role may be performed by a dedicated requirements analyst or split among multiple team members who have other primary job functions, such as a project manager, product manager, or developer. The requirements analyst is responsible for seeing that the tasks are performed properly. Skills Needed !nterviewing skills, to talk with individuals and groups about their needs and ask the right questions to surface essential requirements information "istening skills, to understand what people say and to detect what they might be hesitant to say Analytical skills, to critically evaluate the information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high#level information into details, abstract up from low#level information to a more general understanding, distinguish presented user requests from the underlying true needs, and distinguish solution ideas from requirements $acilitation skills, to lead requirements elicitation workshops %bservational skills, to validate data obtained via other techniques and e&pose new areas for elicitation 'riting skills, to communicate information effectively to customers, marketing, managers, and technical staff %rganizational skills, to work with the vast array of information gathered during elicitation and analysis and to cope with rapidly changing information !nterpersonal skills, to help negotiate priorities and to resolve conflicts among project stakeholders (such as customers, product management, and engineering) *odeling skills, to represent requirements information in graphical forms that augment te&tual representations in natural language, including using modeling languages already established in the development organization An understanding of contemporary requirements elicitation, analysis, specification, verification, and management practices and the ability to apply them in practice+ familiarity with requirements engineering books and resources An understanding of how to practice requirements engineering according to several software development life cycles in a team environment ,nowledge of product management concepts and how enterprise software products are positioned and developed Application domain knowledge is a plus, to have credibility with user representatives and be able to work effectively with them 'ork with the project manager, product manager, and/or project sponsor to document the product-s vision and the project-s scope. !dentify project stakeholders and user classes. .ocument user class

Knowledge Needed

Responsibilities

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characteristics. !dentify appropriate representatives for each user class and negotiate their responsibilities. /licit requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, storyboards, surveys, site visits, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, event lists, business analysis, competitive product analysis, task and workflow analysis, and/or viewpoints. 'rite requirements specifications according to standard templates, using natural language simply, clearly, unambiguously, and concisely. .ecompose high#level business and user requirements into functional requirements and quality, specified in an appropriate level of detail suitable for use by those must base their work on the requirements. .efine quality attributes, e&ternal interfaces, constraints, and other nonfunctional requirements. 0epresent requirements using alternative views, such as analysis models (diagrams), prototypes, or scenarios, where appropriate. "ead requirements analysis and verification, ensuring that requirement statements are complete, consistent, concise, comprehensible, traceable, feasible, unambiguous, and verifiable, and that they conform to standards. 1articipate in requirements prioritization. 1articipate in peer reviews and inspections of requirements documents. 1articipate in peer reviews of work products derived from requirements specifications to ensure that the requirements were interpreted correctly. /nter, manipulate, and report on requirements stored in a commercial requirements management tool. .efine requirement attributes and facilitate their use throughout the project. *anage requirements traceability information and track requirements status throughout the project. !dentify requirements errors and defects, and write requirements defect identification and notification reports. *anage changes to baselined requirements through effective application of change control processes and tools. /stablish and implement effective requirements practices, including use and continuous improvement of a requirements process. Assist with the development of the organization-s requirements engineering policies, procedures, and tools. !mplement ways to reuse requirements across projects. !dentify ways to assist product management in product planning through requirements development and analysis. 1ropose new product features and updates. /valuation from product and project management on overall product quality and effectiveness in the marketplace of the requirements after the product has been developed $eedback from key customer or marketing representatives on the way in which the requirements engineering process was conducted 2ustomer satisfaction measures 3atisfying or e&ceeding requirements development schedules, resource constraints, and quality goals 2ontrol of requirements creep attributable to missed requirements and leakage of 4unofficial5 requirements into the project

Measures of Performance

References

$erdinandi, 1atricia ". A Requirements Pattern: Succeeding in the Internet Economy . 6oston, *ass.7 Addison#'esley, 8998 (2hapter :). 'iegers, ,arl. 4The ;abits of /ffective Analysts,5 Software Development, vol. :, no. <9 (%ctober 8999), pp. =8#=>. ?oung, 0alph 0. Effective Requirements Practices. 6oston, *ass.7 Addison#'esley,

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Notes: Each team that uses this job description needs to weight the various skills and knowledge that are pertinent for their job. Certain skills listed might be critical for one requirements engineer job and unimportant for another. Each person who is considering hiring an individual to be a requirements engineer needs to consider which of these skills are intrinsic in the way the individual works (e.g., analytical and interpersonal skills) and which can be learned (e.g., facilitation and listening skills). The users of this generic job description will need to modify some of the terminology to reflect their specific environment (e.g., corporate information systems development, commercial product development, contract development). This job description needs to be tailored to match the experience level for the position.

Requirements Engineer Job Description

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