Requirements archaeology: from unstructured information to high quality specifications [in the automotive industry]

Describes a successful approach taken at Mercedes-Benz Technology Center (MTC), with the goal of obtaining high-quality requirements specifications for cars while minimizing the additional workload of the core development teams. The system to be specified was the set of embedded systems responsible for driver and passenger comfort. The focus of the specification process was on software requirements. The basic idea was to assign and hire supplementary staff to do the job. At first glance, the overall effort of about 100 person-months to obtain the requirements specifications needed may seem quite high. Nevertheless, we are convinced that this expense represents an excellent investment. The point is that the obtained high-quality, uniform and well-structured requirements stored in a single requirements management database can be efficiently reused in subsequent development cycles for future passenger car models. This partial reuse of specifications promises two major advantages: better specifications in less time.