Software Requirements: Is This the Magic Bullet?

The accelerating cost of developing the electronic content of the typical vehicle is in part due to the cost of software development for these electronic modules. Software development costs for many projects are difficult to predict accurately, and even more difficult to control.

A number of software development methodologies have been published and are followed with mixed success. All place great significance on the generation and management of the requirements for the software.

This paper provides a basic definition of what proper requirements should be, discusses the importance of proper requirements in software development, and compares several approaches to the generation and the management of requirements. Finally, the paper suggests an approach to managing ever-changing ‘real-world’ requirements.