Tutorial Title

Financially Informed Requirements Prioritization

Venue

12th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering
Kyoto, Japan.
Sept. 6th-10th, 2004.
http://www.re04.org

Bio

Dr. Jane Cleland-Huang is an Assistant Professor at DePaul University's School of Computer Science, Telecommunications, and Information Systems. Her research interests include Value-based Software Engineering, Requirements Traceability, and Process Models.  She is Associate Director of the Institute of Software Engineering in Chicago, and director of the DePaul Center for Applied Requirements.  She previously worked in industry as a developer, systems analyst, and consultant.  Dr. Cleland-Huang recently co-authored the book “Software by Numbers, low-risk, high-return development”, which describes a financially informed approach to software development, and has been highly endorsed by both agile and planned development communities.  She is a member of the IEEE Computer Society.

Abstract

This tutorial introduces a financially responsible approach to requirements prioritization known as the Incremental Funding Method (IFM) and described in the book “Software by Numbers: Low-risk, High-Return Development”. 

Attendees will learn how to group requirements into “chunks” of revenue-generating functionality known as Minimal Marketable Features (MMFs), and how to carefully sequence those MMFs in order to maximize the overall value of the project, reduce initial funding investments, and manipulate other project metrics such as the time needed for a project to reach break-even status.  A gentle introduction to financial analysis will also equip participants to analyze and understand the impact of other requirements prioritization decisions upon the financial returns of a project.  This process is applicable within any iterative development approach such as the Rational Unified Process or within a more agile environment. 

In addition to introducing the concepts and techniques needed to implement IFM within a real project, the tutorial will include hands-on activities in which participants will apply the principles they have learned.   All attendees will receive tutorial notes, as well as proprietary software tools to take home with them.

The tutorial is targeted to developers, project managers, process specialists, CIOs, CTOs, and CFOs, or anyone interested in learning more about the role of requirements prioritization as a financial value-creating activity. 

For additional information and endorsements related to the topics covered in this tutorial, please visit http://www.softwarebynumbers.org