Everybody creates things. Most people know they are supposed to plan the things they create. (You probably plan unconsciously even if you don’t realize you are doing it.) This planning is essentially the design of requirements. By making requirements we try to answer questions like:

• What am I making? (Or what does the customer expect?)
• How will I know if we did it right? Is what we make acceptable?
• What is most important about this product?
• How do we describe this product? What is it supposed to do?

Of course these are great ideas, but how do we actually do them? It is easy to see that requirements themselves become an engineered product. So we need to consider how to do those requirements. In other words, what are the requirements for requirements? For this presentation, we will try to answer a series of questions about requirements themselves:

• What is a requirement?
• What are the components of a requirement?
• What are the different types of requirements?
• What is a good requirement?
• What is a bad requirement?
• How do I create requirements (methodology)?
• How important is it that my customer be involved in creating requirements?
• How do I test requirements?
• How do I measure my requirements?
• What problems will I have if I don't follow the process?
• What tools are available?

The presentation will address these topics in a generic way that could apply to anything from making a cake from a recipe to making a supercomputer. It will be augmented with some examples from various applications. Audience members will be invited to share their examples of requirements and their development, so come prepared with your best and worst stories!

Larry has 25 years of experience in software development, project management and process improvement. He has a BS in Mathematics from the University of Alabama.

Larry has over 25 years experience in Information Technology, ranging from software development, project management, process improvement to a member of senior management. His primary focus has been in three areas:

• Strategic & Tactical Business Planning
• Organizational Development, and
• Quality Assurance/Process Improvement

Larry has functioned in a range of roles, from advisor to Vice President. He has worked with numerous companies to aid them in determining corporate strengths, identifying growth potential, performing long-range business planning and identifying diversification opportunities.

Larry’s organizational development began while working with CEOs of emerging companies within the Washington DC area. He held formal classroom training sessions in proposal writing, proposal organization, software project management, honing communication skills and holding effective meetings.

Larry’s experience with small, fast-growing companies highlights his QA experience. These companies were constantly improving their infrastructure as a normal part of growth. This includes software process improvement, organizational process improvement, implementation of the Capability Maturity Model Level 2 and compliance with ISO 9001.

He is currently living in Tucson, Arizona and working for Misys Healthcare Systems. Here, he is leveraging his communication and organizational skills as the Senior Process Improvement Engineer, responsible for all aspects of their process improvement initiative, as well as Manager of Configuration Management, responsible for the configuration of Misys products.

Brad Bittorf has worked in embedded real-time software development for 20 years. Bittorf has a B.S.-Applied Computer Systems from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (summer training home of the Kansas City Chiefs). Brad has designed, implemented, tested, and directed software and computer systems for cellular telephones, industrial automation control, missile radar systems, and industrial communication routers. Brad’s specialties include process improvement, industrial automation redundancy and high availability systems (he once designed three different backup systems for the same industrial automation platform). Brad has helped develop requirements for a next-generation automation system. He shares three patents in these areas. Brad has previously presented to the Northeast Ohio SPIN and Tucson SPIN chapters, as well as the International Conference on Software Process Improvement.. Currently Bittorf is a Principle Software Process Engineer for Raytheon in Tucson, Arizona.

Bittorf's personal activities include the International Lilac Society, for whom he serves as a board member (and photographer), various sports, domestic travel, and volunteer work such as judging science fairs.

Kurt M. McMillen is a Senior Principal Software Engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) in Tucson, Arizona. His current assignment is as the Process Management and Improvement Team Lead for the development of the new Integrated Product Development System RMS business model. Kurt’s previous responsibilities include leading software process technology development and being co-chairperson of the RMS Software Technology Insertion Committee. Kurt was responsible for Software Configuration Management at Raytheon TI Systems in Lewisville, Texas, and he also has experience as a test equipment software developer. Kurt’s non-software domain experience includes responsibilities as the Hardware Engineering Manager for the HARM ALIC Program and the HARM Major Subcontracts Product Engineering Manager while at Texas Instruments. Kurt holds a Bachelors degree in Chemistry from University of California, Davis, and a Masters degree in Software Engineering from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.