Microsoft Corporation

May 2006

Applies to:
    Microsoft Office Word 2003
    Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System
    Microsoft SQL Server 2005
    Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
    Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System

Summary: Learn how the Requirements Authoring Starter Kit (RASK) can help software development teams collect, interpret, distribute, and synchronize project requirements in a structured Word document using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System. (10 printed pages)

Download Office2003RASK.exe.

Contents

Introduction
Problem Statement
RASK Architecture
Feature Walkthroughs
Conclusion
Additional Resources

Introduction

The Requirements Authoring Starter Kit (RASK) is a pair of customizable requirements-authoring solutions for software development teams. RASK has broad functionality that you can extend with minimal effort.

RASK integrates several Microsoft products into the solutions: Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. In addition, RASK uses Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server (Beta 3), which are part of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System.

RASK is not a complete requirements authoring application and is not intended to compete with existing requirements management applications.

Requirements Authoring Starter Kit (Part 2 of 2) introduces the code that enables each RASK feature.

Problem Statement

RASK illustrates a concept for authoring software development requirements in a team environment. Because requirements inevitably change throughout a project lifecycle, a shared view of requirement information is critical. For example, in a project where many people are responsible for collecting and interpreting requirements, changes can result from refinement of the design or changes requested by the team members. In such an environment, the overhead of a large-scale, requirements management system can be daunting, and teams resort to exchanging standalone requirements documents. This leads to information overload and an inability to fully realize the impact of changes when they occur.

RASK takes a pragmatic middle ground between heavy process and improvised requirements management. It allows project managers to distribute requirements collection between many business analysts, each of whom work in familiar, structured Word documents. These documents are not ordinary, however. They can save their requirements to a SQL Server database. This database becomes the point of consolidation, and Word serves as a fully featured formatting and data entry tool. Contrast this to the awkward and time-consuming process of merging and reconciling multiple documents manually, which is often the norm.

Change Impact Management

With project requirements consolidated in a structured way, RASK connects them to indicate dependencies and relationships. When a requirement changes, team members are notified to review related requirements for potential impact. By moving change information earlier in the process and providing it effectively, RASK has a dramatic affect on project success and cost control.

Accessible Review

From a SQL Server database, RASK automatically generates a consolidated Word document that contains all of the requirements from each source. RASK can do this whenever you modify a requirement. Having the requirements in document form facilitates review by team members, users, and project sponsors. In addition, they can print or format the document, or use it offline. Such capabilities contribute to convenient and accessible communication.

Using RASK, you can store requirements documents on a Windows SharePoint Services site, which makes them easy to locate on an organization's intranet. Using SharePoint Services, team members can see document history and version information, and submit comments within the body of the document.

Communication with Engineering Teams

Although project managers and business analysts typically drive requirement authoring, the process is critical to software engineers, also. Requirements determine the solution design and result in specific development tasks for engineers. Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, which is part of Visual Studio Team System, provides team-level information for engineers. It also provides the ability to manage work items for an entire team.

With RASK, you can synchronize requirements and work items so that engineers have one place to manage the project workload. RASK can create work items that represent specific requirements, and then embed a URL in a Word document shared on a server running Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server. The URL allows engineers to quickly locate requirement details. As the project progresses, you can add other work items to clarify the true cost and complexity of additional requirements.