Software Engineering

7.2.1 
Balancing and deconflicting stakeholder needs
Resolving conflicting stakeholder needs so that the software requirements can be 
specified, and understanding how each need affects the software architecture, pro-
ject costs and schedule objectives, product complexity, and post-development pro-
cesses. The costs and risks associated with each need must be estimated to provide 
a basis for proceeding with generating an achievable set of software requirements. 
The stakeholder needs must be prioritized based on the cooperative agreement of 
potential costs and risks to project objectives and product viability. This set of pri-
oritized needs, with estimated cost, schedule, and risk information, provides a basis 
for resolving conflicts among stakeholders needs, and gaining stakeholder accept-
ance of recommended compromises that form the basis for establishing software 
specifications.
Further analysis of prioritized stakeholder needs may involve functional analy-
sis and allocation and design synthesis to gain a better understanding of the ramifi-
cations on the software product, post-development processes, and project cost and 
schedule objectives. Trade-off analysis and risk assessments should be performed to 
distinguish among the design alternatives and permit design decisions to be made 
with more accurate information. This further analysis will provide the supporting 
data and rationale that can be used to assist stakeholders to appreciate the impact of 
their vague or excessive requests.