Allocate requirements to elements

The practice, in our words

Allocate each system requirement to the element or elements that satisfy it, and record the allocation. An unallocated requirement is a requirement nobody is building; an element with no requirement is work nobody asked for.

What it means in a VSE

Use a matrix with requirements down the side and elements across the top. Mark the allocation and the verification method. Review it with the element owners, because they will see the gaps before the assessor does.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, allocate requirements to elements has to earn its time. The test for SR-03 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.

How to evidence it

Attach the artefacts above to the Allocate requirements to elements row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for SR-03 is The allocation matrix. A named person must produce it on request.

For SR-03, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The verification method for each allocation. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for allocate requirements to elements.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the allocate requirements to elements practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For SR-03, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for SR-03 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

• Requirements allocated to the system as a whole
• An element built with no requirement behind it

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places allocate requirements to elements inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For SR-03, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for SR-03 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.

Related practices

• SR-02 Define the system architecture
• SR-05 Integrate and verify the system