ISO-Standardized Requirements Activities for Very Small Entities

International audienceThe use of Software Engineering standards may promote recognized and valuable engineering practices for Very Small Entities (VSEs) but these standards do not fit the needs of VSEs. The ISO/IEC Working Group 24 (WG24) is developing the ISO/IEC 29110 standard Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities; this standard is due for approval in June 2010. A pilot project about ISO 29110 use has been established between our Software Engineering group and a 14-person company building and selling counting systems about the frequentation levels of public and private sites. The pilot project aims to help VSEs deliver the Software Requirements Specification, Test Cases and Test Procedures for a new web-based system intended to manage fleets of counting systems. As the project goes along, it appears that the 29110 set of documents was not up to the task of sustaining this VSE in its engineering activities. We supported the VSE in two ways: (i) a Training Session based on the 29110 Requirements Analysis activity, and (ii) Self-Training Packages - a set of resources intended to develop experience and skills in Requirements Identification and SW Requirement Specification (SRS). Our inspiration stems from the 15504-5 standard with a desire to provide software engineers with an exemplar set of base practices providing a definition of the tasks and activities needed to fulfil the process (e.g. requirements) outcomes. Task definition is collected on a task card. The results of this pilot study provide the VSE with a roadmap through the Requirements activity, which is compatible with the ISO/IEC 29110 standard