Software Engineering

9.4  Requirement traceability ................................................................................... 170
9.4.1  Change control .............................................................................. 171
9.4.2  Configuration audits ....................................................................... 172
Managing requirements is an essential practice that contributes to the success of 
any software development effort. Requirements define the scope of the work the 
project will execute in an attempt to satisfy stakeholders. The development of 
a software architecture is enabled by establishing an agreed upon set of software 
requirements. The software requirements must be controlled to ensure that the soft-
ware architecture and implementation can satisfactorily pass acceptance testing and 
configuration audits. If the software requirements are not stabilized early in the pro-
ject, then the project and technical plans, product architecture, and software imple-
mentation will experience continual upheaval attempting to keep up with changing 
requirements.
The software development must be viewed as a fixed time continuum during 
which the software solution must evolve from a concept to a deployable product. 
The software requirements disclose the ingredients for achieving success, while 
the project and technical plans expose the perils of navigating treacherous territory. 
Permitting requirements to be superfluous, ambiguous, or erratic will lead the pro-
ject into a state of chaos. The development of the software architecture cannot be 
completed until the requirements have been stabilized and baselined.
The primary objective for the software engineering team is to establish sym-
metry among software requirements, project cost, and schedule objectives. If the 

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