Skip to main content

Notice: this Wiki will be going read only early in 2024 and edits will no longer be possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.

Jump to: navigation, search

Difference between revisions of "RMF/Teaching"

< RMF
(Added Training Pre-requisites Section.)
 
(27 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
Requirements Management and Engineering (RE&M) is taught, both in industry and academia.  The availability of open source RE-tools, and the RMF-based (fmStudio)[http://www.formalmind.com/studio] in particular, created some interest for using those tools for teaching.
+
== Outdated ==
  
During the initial discussions, two things became clear:
+
The RMF/Teaching project is migrating to gitHub: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/
  
* RM&E cannot be taught without taking the wider systems engineering (SE) context into account.  In other words, RM&E must be considered a subdiscipline of SE, and must be treated that way.
+
== Vision ==
  
* A tool must follow the process/methodology, not the other way around. Therefore, the foundation for this effort must be a solid, leightweight SE develpment process that is appropriate for teaching and relevant in practice.
+
Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/
  
== Vision (tentative) ==
+
== Scope ==
  
Create (1) a set of teaching materials that is actively used; (2) which is embedded in a larger SE context; and (3) which explicitly focuses on application, not on theory.
+
Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/
  
 
== Objectives ==
 
== Objectives ==
  
* '''Collaboration of Industry, Service Providers and Academia:''' These three groups can benefit vastly from each other: Industry relies on academia for skilled labor, while service provider deliver expertise to industry in the form of knowledge (consultants) and tools (vendors).
+
Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/
* '''Standardization of basic RE (or SE) skills:''' Preparation of students with a basic set of skills that is relevant in industry, so employers know what to expect.
+
* '''Teaching Materials:''' Ideally, one outcome of this effort is a set of adaptable teaching materials.
+
  
== Ideas ==
+
== Case Study ==
  
* Examples, Exercises, etc. (Herrmann) (Beispiel-Lastenhefte für die Lehre, Übungen und Musterlösungen.)
+
As the next step, we will focus on building up a case study/example. In the telco on July 25th, 2014, we decided that the case study shall involve software and hardware, and we narrowed it down to the following three:
* Create a mind map, to understand the problem we're trying to solve (Daniel Gross)
+
* use [http://wymagania.net/materialy/REQB-Syllabus-Foundation-Leve-v.1.2.pdf REQB-Syllabus] as a starting point
+
  
== Join the Discussion ==
+
# '''Coffee Maker:''' A long-time favorite, and there are at least three available (see "Case Study Examples" below)
 +
# '''FAA Isolette:''' This is a complete example from a safety-critical domain.
 +
# '''Rover:''' This one is driven by [https://polarsys.org/wiki/PolarSys_Rover_Demo Gaël Blondelle from the Eclipse Foundation].  On the plus side, it's great for the classroom, as the hardware is cheap.  But in contrast to the others, there is nothing there yet.
  
This discussion was initiated via email - a bad place to keep a conversation going.  For the time being, we will start a new discussion thread on LinkedIn.
 
  
== Open Questions ==
+
The table below serves to compare possible case studies against objectives of an RE (Requirements engineering) education/course/training. Note that at this moment the list of objectives is only a proposal, adding or editing the list is welcome.
  
=== What is the Scope? ===
+
For better understanding of this proposal, a tiny bit of the RE theory adhered to:
  
Systems Engineering or Requirements Engineering? A number of participants pointed out that RE as a stand-alone discipline is losing importance in favor of Systems Engineering, of which RE is a sub-disciplineTherefore, at a minimum we should look into RE in the context of overall SE.
+
RE consists of the activities of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requirements_engineering]:
 +
* RD – Requirements development: elicitation, analysis, modelling, specification (documenting), verification
 +
* RM – Requirements management: tracing, communication, reviewing, feedback processing, attributes management, change management, reporting, reuse.
 +
The objectives of a comprehensive RE training is to illuminate all these activities more or less, but there are also other objectives, in the table bellow divided into "Requirements process" and "Requirements technology"; at the bottom, some practicality objectives too (as size of the case study).
  
Next, the scope is clearly operational, not theoretical.  The theory (methodology, process), should be given and can maybe be covered elsewhere.
+
The columns show the Relevance of the objective, as rated by various stakeholders.
  
=== What is the means? ===
+
The objectives, where applicable, are related to the following two authoritative RE skill overviews:
  
What can we produce that provides value for this group? Suggestions include:
+
* SI.m.n are subprocesses of the Software Implementation (SI) process as referred to in "DP-Software Requirements Analysis-V1_2.doc" on [http://profs.etsmtl.ca/claporte/english/VSE/Deploy-Pack/]
 +
* EU are Education Units as referred to in the IREB-CPRE Foundation Level syllabus [http://www.ireb.org/fileadmin/IREB/Lehrplaene/IREB_cpre_syllabus_FL_en_v21.pdf]
  
* Templates (process-specific, for specific tools)
+
{| class="wikitable"
* Case Studies (with artifacts for specific tols)
+
|-
* Tutorials (process-specific step-by-step instructions, for specific tools)
+
! Objective that the case illuminates  \  Case
* Slides (for teaching)
+
! Dusko
* Reference Materials (e.g. tool-specific adaptation of a process)
+
! Andrea
* Project (high level description of a goal with instructions on how to realize it)
+
! Eckhard
 +
! Ron
 +
! Michael
 +
|-
 +
| '''Requirements process:'''
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
|-
 +
| Place of the RE process in the SE process (CMMI, …), SI.2.1, EU 2
 +
**
 +
 +
|  ***
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Requirements in a Product Creation Process: up front (waterfall), ongoing (agile), ...
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| Requirements process states (rigour): Draft -> Proposal -> … -> Approval , EU 8?
 +
*
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| Versions vs variants, variability, EU 8
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|  ***
 +
|  Adv
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Req communication and collaboration media (documents, general purpose comm. media, specialised tooling)
 +
**
 +
 +
|  ***
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| RE process interoperability with the V&V (Verification&Validation, aka testing) process, SI.2.3
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Elicitation, SI.2.2, EU 3
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Analysis, SI.2.2
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|  Int
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Modelling, EU 6
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  Adv
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Specification (documenting), SI.2.2, EU 4
 +
**
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Verification, SI.2.3 ("correctness and testability"), EU 7
 +
**
 +
|  *
 +
|  ***
 +
|
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Tracing, SI.2.3, SI.2.6, EU 8
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  ****
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Communication, SI.2.3, SI.2.4, SI.2.5, SI.2.6
 +
|  *
 +
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| Reviewing, SI.2.3
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Feedback processing, SI.2.2
 +
|  *
 +
 +
|  *
 +
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| Attributes management, EU 8
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  ***
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Change management, SI.2.3, EU 8
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  ***
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Reuse management
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|  ****
 +
|  Adv
 +
 +
|-
 +
| Document generation with selective req-info content (views), SI.2.2, SI.2.5, SI.2.6, EU 8
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|  ****
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Requirements process KPI reporting
 +
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
| Int
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| '''Requirements technology:'''
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
|-
 +
| Requirements SMARTness, SI.2.3
 +
|  **
 +
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| Core req-info vs req attributes (w.r.t. formulation, rationale, requirements process, reuse policies)
 +
**
 +
|  *
 +
|  ****
 +
|  Int
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| Formulation of requirements: in natural language (EU 5), in formal language, in models, SI.2.3
 +
|  **
 +
 +
|  ***
 +
|  Adv
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| Formality (acceptance criteria) vs informality (providing context) in specifying requirements, SI.2.4
 +
|  *
 +
 +
|  **
 +
|  Int
 +
 +
|-
 +
| Requirements frameworks (BABOK, Volere, IEEE…)
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  -
 +
|  Int
 +
 +
|-
 +
| V-horizontal traceability: traces among req-info-items at one level of stakeholders’ abstraction: requirements – requirements groups – dependences – reuse traces – change requests – test cases – test reports, SI.2.3, EU 8
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  ***
 +
|  Int
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| V-vertical traceability: traces among req-info-items across various levels of stakeholders’ abstraction: business level – product level – component level, SI.2.3, SI.2.4, EU 8
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  ***
 +
|  Int
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Baselining, EU 8
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|-
 +
| '''Case practicality:'''
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
| -------
 +
|-
  
=== What process/methodology would be suitable? ===
+
| Domain/application familiarity
 +
|  **
 +
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| Size: # req-info-items, # acceptance criteria, # test cases
 +
|  **
 +
 +
|
 +
 +
 +
|-
 +
| # Functional requirements
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|  -
 +
|  *
 +
|  **
 +
|-
 +
| # Extrafunctional (restrictions, technology, markets, maintenance …), quality, regulation, …  requirements
 +
|  **
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|  *
 +
|}
  
Before answering this question, we need to understand the scope.  We should look for a slim-lightweight process for MBSE and focus on the RE-part of it.
+
The table in its current form including a visual evaluation is available as PDF [[File:teaching-evaluation.pdf]].
  
Suggestion regarding the process: To use the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_29110 ISO/IEC 29110 Systems and Software Life Cycle Profiles and Guidelines for Very Small Entities (VSEs)]. The standard is accompanied by a set of Deployment Packages (DP) that, taken together, structure a complete software or system lifecycle process package. The DPs provide an "out-of-the-box" process for those VSEs that cannot afford the time, the effort or the resources to attack the "Big League" standards like ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 or 15288 and the CMMi. Once all DPs have been covered, a basis for a complete VSE software or systems engineering certification program is assembled. To start, the Systems Engineering Requirement Engineering (RE) DP can be made available in Draft version and should be released sometimes in 2014 (as of July 2014). The DP provides a set of basic attributes to capture and manage requirements and to establish traceability links.
 
  
Suggestion regarding the Sample Project: Every training course needs a sample project to work out. For this Systems Engineering training curriculum, it is suggested to use the [http://www.incose.org/symp2014/?page=TVC-challenge INCOSE Tool Vendor Disaster Relief Challenge].
+
--- Notes: ---
 +
* Topics should be aligned with the ISO 29110 Profiles (Entry, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced). The initial Training cursus should be targeted at the Basic Profile.
  
=== What pre-requisites do we expect from anyone taking this training? ===
+
=== Case Study Examples ===
Before setting out to design and develop a training, we need to know what type of background students will bring in to the training session. I would propose the following:
+
* the students have read the ISO 29110 Systems and Software Life Cycle Profiles and Guidelines for Very Small Entities (VSEs);
+
* the students are familiar with the Eclipse environment and they have installed:
+
1) the Eclipse development toolset;
+
2) the Eclipse Requirements Management framework (RMF);
+
3) the FormalMind Studio application (which would include both the RMF and ProR).
+
* the students have little or no formal training or experience in Requirements Engineering.
+
  
Questions/Issues:
+
Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/roadmap/
* Do students need to understand basics concepts of Change Management, sufficient to go through the creation, analysis, review and implementation of a Requirement Change Request?
+
  
== Interested Parties ==
+
== Meetings ==
  
* Formal Mind GmbH ([http://www.formalmind.com/contact Michael Jastram])
+
Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/posts/
* Herrmann & Ehrlich ([http://www.herrmann-ehrlich.de Andrea Herrmann])
+
* REArch Int. ([http://www.rearchint.com/ Dusko Jovanovic])
+
* Daniel Gross
+
* Paul Jorgensen ([http://gvsu.edu University in Michigan])
+
* Ronald (Ron) Houde ([http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/ronald-houde/7/597/989/ LinkedIn Profile Page])
+
  
== Backlog ==
+
== Open Questions ==
  
 +
Now found in the gitHub issue tracker: https://github.com/jastram/teaching/labels/question
  
 +
 +
== Interested Parties ==
 +
 +
Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/team/
 +
 +
== Backlog ==
  
 
== Contact / Initiator ==
 
== Contact / Initiator ==
  
 
[http://www.formalmind.com/contact Michael Jastram]
 
[http://www.formalmind.com/contact Michael Jastram]
 +
 +
= Backup =
 +
 +
During the initial discussions, two things became clear:
 +
 +
* RM&E cannot be taught without taking the wider systems engineering (SE) context into account.  In other words, RM&E must be considered a subdiscipline of SE, and must be treated that way.
 +
 +
* A tool must follow the process/methodology, not the other way around.  Therefore, the foundation for this effort must be a solid, leightweight SE develpment process that is appropriate for teaching and relevant in practice.
 +
 +
== Ideas ==
 +
 +
* Examples, Exercises, etc. (Herrmann) (example customer requirements specification, exercises and sample solutions)
 +
* Create a mind map, to understand the problem we're trying to solve (Daniel Gross)
 +
* use [http://wymagania.net/materialy/REQB-Syllabus-Foundation-Leve-v.1.2.pdf REQB-Syllabus] as a starting point
 +
* alternately, use the International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB) [http://www.ireb.org/en/syllabi/foundation-level.html Foundation Level RE Training Syllabus]
 +
 +
 +
== Join the Discussion ==
 +
 +
This discussion was initiated via email - a bad place to keep a conversation going.  For the time being, we will start a new discussion thread on LinkedIn.

Latest revision as of 09:41, 1 September 2014

Outdated

The RMF/Teaching project is migrating to gitHub: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/

Vision

Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/

Scope

Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/

Objectives

Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/

Case Study

As the next step, we will focus on building up a case study/example. In the telco on July 25th, 2014, we decided that the case study shall involve software and hardware, and we narrowed it down to the following three:

  1. Coffee Maker: A long-time favorite, and there are at least three available (see "Case Study Examples" below)
  2. FAA Isolette: This is a complete example from a safety-critical domain.
  3. Rover: This one is driven by Gaël Blondelle from the Eclipse Foundation. On the plus side, it's great for the classroom, as the hardware is cheap. But in contrast to the others, there is nothing there yet.


The table below serves to compare possible case studies against objectives of an RE (Requirements engineering) education/course/training. Note that at this moment the list of objectives is only a proposal, adding or editing the list is welcome.

For better understanding of this proposal, a tiny bit of the RE theory adhered to:

RE consists of the activities of [1]:

  • RD – Requirements development: elicitation, analysis, modelling, specification (documenting), verification
  • RM – Requirements management: tracing, communication, reviewing, feedback processing, attributes management, change management, reporting, reuse.

The objectives of a comprehensive RE training is to illuminate all these activities more or less, but there are also other objectives, in the table bellow divided into "Requirements process" and "Requirements technology"; at the bottom, some practicality objectives too (as size of the case study).

The columns show the Relevance of the objective, as rated by various stakeholders.

The objectives, where applicable, are related to the following two authoritative RE skill overviews:

  • SI.m.n are subprocesses of the Software Implementation (SI) process as referred to in "DP-Software Requirements Analysis-V1_2.doc" on [2]
  • EU are Education Units as referred to in the IREB-CPRE Foundation Level syllabus [3]
Objective that the case illuminates \ Case Dusko Andrea Eckhard Ron Michael
Requirements process: ------- ------- ------- -------
Place of the RE process in the SE process (CMMI, …), SI.2.1, EU 2 ** *** * **
Requirements in a Product Creation Process: up front (waterfall), ongoing (agile), ... * * * *
Requirements process states (rigour): Draft -> Proposal -> … -> Approval , EU 8? * ** ** ** *
Versions vs variants, variability, EU 8 ** * *** Adv **
Req communication and collaboration media (documents, general purpose comm. media, specialised tooling) ** *** ** **
RE process interoperability with the V&V (Verification&Validation, aka testing) process, SI.2.3 ** ** ** **
Elicitation, SI.2.2, EU 3 * * ** ** **
Analysis, SI.2.2 ** ** * Int **
Modelling, EU 6 ** * * Adv **
Specification (documenting), SI.2.2, EU 4 ** * ** ** **
Verification, SI.2.3 ("correctness and testability"), EU 7 ** * *** **
Tracing, SI.2.3, SI.2.6, EU 8 ** ** **** ** **
Communication, SI.2.3, SI.2.4, SI.2.5, SI.2.6 * ** ** *
Reviewing, SI.2.3 * * ** ** **
Feedback processing, SI.2.2 * * *
Attributes management, EU 8 ** ** *** * **
Change management, SI.2.3, EU 8 ** ** *** * **
Reuse management ** * **** Adv
Document generation with selective req-info content (views), SI.2.2, SI.2.5, SI.2.6, EU 8 * ** **** * **
Requirements process KPI reporting ** ** Int *
Requirements technology: ------- ------- ------- -------
Requirements SMARTness, SI.2.3 ** * ** *
Core req-info vs req attributes (w.r.t. formulation, rationale, requirements process, reuse policies) ** * **** Int *
Formulation of requirements: in natural language (EU 5), in formal language, in models, SI.2.3 ** *** Adv *
Formality (acceptance criteria) vs informality (providing context) in specifying requirements, SI.2.4 * ** Int
Requirements frameworks (BABOK, Volere, IEEE…) * * - Int
V-horizontal traceability: traces among req-info-items at one level of stakeholders’ abstraction: requirements – requirements groups – dependences – reuse traces – change requests – test cases – test reports, SI.2.3, EU 8 ** ** *** Int **
V-vertical traceability: traces among req-info-items across various levels of stakeholders’ abstraction: business level – product level – component level, SI.2.3, SI.2.4, EU 8 ** ** *** Int **
Baselining, EU 8 ** ** * ** *
Case practicality: ------- ------- ------- -------
Domain/application familiarity ** * ** **
Size: # req-info-items, # acceptance criteria, # test cases **
# Functional requirements ** * - * **
# Extrafunctional (restrictions, technology, markets, maintenance …), quality, regulation, … requirements ** * * * *

The table in its current form including a visual evaluation is available as PDF File:Teaching-evaluation.pdf.


--- Notes: ---

  • Topics should be aligned with the ISO 29110 Profiles (Entry, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced). The initial Training cursus should be targeted at the Basic Profile.

Case Study Examples

Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/roadmap/

Meetings

Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/posts/

Open Questions

Now found in the gitHub issue tracker: https://github.com/jastram/teaching/labels/question


Interested Parties

Now found here: http://jastram.github.io/teaching/team/

Backlog

Contact / Initiator

Michael Jastram

Backup

During the initial discussions, two things became clear:

  • RM&E cannot be taught without taking the wider systems engineering (SE) context into account. In other words, RM&E must be considered a subdiscipline of SE, and must be treated that way.
  • A tool must follow the process/methodology, not the other way around. Therefore, the foundation for this effort must be a solid, leightweight SE develpment process that is appropriate for teaching and relevant in practice.

Ideas

  • Examples, Exercises, etc. (Herrmann) (example customer requirements specification, exercises and sample solutions)
  • Create a mind map, to understand the problem we're trying to solve (Daniel Gross)
  • use REQB-Syllabus as a starting point
  • alternately, use the International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB) Foundation Level RE Training Syllabus


Join the Discussion

This discussion was initiated via email - a bad place to keep a conversation going. For the time being, we will start a new discussion thread on LinkedIn.

Back to the top