Requirements Management & Requirements Development

Requirements Management (RM) is at Level 2, while Requirements Development (RD) is at Level 3 in a staged representation. A quite often asked question is how can one manage requirements without first developing them. Logically, requirements are to be developed (both implicit and explicit customer needs are elicited), and later on managed (thru horizontal and vertical RTM).

However, from a staged representation perspective, an organization at Level 2 need only to manage requirements. Different projects would take up this activitiy in their own way (No Institutionalization). Also, customer needs are not elicited at this level. So, requirements from customers pour in, and the organization merely manages them thru a bi-directional traceability matrix.

For an organization at Level 3, however, requirements ought to be developed first. Both implicit and explicit customer needs are elicited. The requirements are then managed thru a bidirectional traceability matrix. The needs development & management activities at this level are uniform across all projects in the ogranization (Institutionalization).