The Requirements Capability Model - RCM

Visure has developed a model for evaluating an organization’s capability level in relation to the requirements process: The Requirements Capability Model (RCM). This model is based on the definition of levels that will help to evaluate the starting situation of an organization in relation to the good practices to be followed within the Requirements Definition and Management framework. By means of a Gap Analysis, which consists of identifying the starting level, we will identify the main Improvement Areas on which to implement an Improvement Plan, taking into account the level we aim to reach.

Visure undertakes these types of projects with a practical approach; the objective is to make realistic plans with a clear and defined scope, establishing milestones in advance with metrics that will allow us to evaluate the progress made, always taking corporate culture change management into account.

Benefits

Using the RCM Model to carry out the gap analysis of your Requirements Definition and Management process will help you to understand:

• The status of your requirements capture, analysis, specification, verification, validation and management process.
• The skills and training needs of your business and functional analysts.
• The level of use of your tools, templates and other elements.
• The level of communication between the different areas involved in the development of the product.
• Etc.

Goals

The main goal of an initial diagnosis using RCM is to identify the adherence to the Requirements Engineering processes with recognised market standards.

By using RCM, at Visure we are capable of going into detail, in order to identify the different characteristics of the Requirements Definition and Management process, such as:

• Requirements structure
• Definition suitability
• Scope of change management
• Reuse of requirements
• Etc.

Results

The Gap Analysis will provide a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the coverage with respect to the RCM Model, identifying Strengths and Improvement Opportunities, in addition to metrics indicating the fulfillment of each level and practice.

This result, together with an evaluation of the level that the organization aims to reach, is the basic starting element for preparing the Improvement Plan.

The RCM Model

At Visure we recommend using the RCM Model, as it represents substantial added value for the improvement project due to the fact that, as opposed to other process maturity models of unquestionable renown which do not cover certain practices considered critical in requirements engineering, RCM does.

The RCM Model assesses requirements process capability suitability in three aspects:

• PROCESSES: The practices or activities that are defined and carried out.
• PERSONS: The existing training and qualification needs.
• TECHNOLOGY: The existing support tools. 

Combining these three factors allows us to provide specific solutions to the specific problems of organizations.

The RCM Model establishes five Capability levels (level 0 is an initial level that does not count):

• At level 0, the requirements are included in documents and are unstructured other than being organized into the chapters of the document itself.
• At level 1, the implementation of the requirements engineering process in an organization starts.
• At level 2, a Requirements Definition and Management process has been established.
• At level 3, project acceptance and management has been defined.
• At level 4, design elements have been defined.
• At level 5, there is consistent the change management, reuse of requirements and corporate implementation of the requirements engineering process.
   

Capability Levels

• Level 0: Unstructured
• Level 1: Structured
• Level 2: Defined process
• Level 3: Initial Traced: Project acceptance and management has been traced
• Level 4: Traced: design elements have been traced
• Level 5: Modelled

Each of the capability levels is comprised of different practices grouped into four categories:

• Practices relating to Requirements Engineering
• Practices relating to Change Management
• Practices for guaranteeing Corporate Implementation
• Reuse practices

The level-based approach measures the situation of an organization in relation to all the aspects of the Requirements Definition and Management process. Nevertheless, the organization’s business approach and its specific needs is taken into account when designing the Improvement Plan; improvement actions can only be established in specific areas of Requirements Definition and Management, corresponding to one or several levels, that do not necessarily have to be undertaken in the order indicated by the levels defined in the RCM Model.

In the Improvement Plan takes into account the level identified as objective (or the specific areas of each level). In order to put the Improvement Plan into practice we must define the practices to be implemented, configure the tools required to give optimal support to the processes and train team both in methodological aspects and in the use of the tools required to implement those practices. Visure’s IRQA Requirements Definition and Management Solution fully supports the practices defined in the RCM Model.

RCM Assessment

The RCM Model has an assessment model based on the analysis of:

• Requirements Definition and Management process documentation.
• Project documentation within the requirements framework.

In addition to revising this documentation, different interviews are held with all the relevant Stakeholders , in such a manner that every viewpoint is taken into account.

All of this information is treated objectively in order to obtain an adherence weighting of the organization’s processes with respect to the model’s practices, relative to their level of compliance with the RCM Model and also for each RCM level in their different categories.

The results of the assessment method, the Gap Analysis, are presented in a quantitative and qualitative summarized manner, identifying strengths and opportunities to improve, and metrics and graphics that show the organizational’s global compliance in relation to each level and its degree of compliance in relation to the practices of each level, grouped by categories.

If you wish to carry out a RCM evaluation of your organization, please contact us.

(link to professionalservices@visuresolutions.com).