Evolving beyond requirements creep: a risk-based evolutionaryprototyping model

摘要

Evolutionary prototyping focuses on gathering a correct andconsistent set of requirements. The process lends particular strength tobuilding quality software by means of the ongoing clarification ofexisting requirements and the discovery of previously missing or unknownrequirements. Traditionally, the iterative reexamination of a systemsrequirements has not been the panacea that practitioners sought, due tothe predisposition for requirements creep and the difficulty in managingit. The paper proposes the combination of evolutionary prototyping andan aggressive risk mitigation strategy. Together, these techniquessupport successful requirements discovery and clarification, and theyguard against the negative effects of requirements creep. We embodythese techniques in a comprehensive software development model, which wecall the EPRAM (Evolutionary Prototyping with Risk Analysis andMitigation) model. The model was intentionally designed to comply withthe Level 2 Key Process Area of the Software Engineering Institute'sCapability Maturity Model. Validation is currently underway on severalsoftware development efforts that employ the model to support the rapiddevelopment of electronic commerce applications