Requirements Engineering with DOORS

A Practical 3-Day Hands-on Course

This is a practical course in which participants acquire the minimum of requirements engineering theory to enable them to practise the basic skills of requirements elicitation and management, with the support of the market-leading tool DOORS.

Techniques used in the course include scenario-based requirements elicitation, requirements management, information modelling, and data import and organisation. Add-on tools for these purposes are provided free to participants.

The course does not assume any prior knowledge of DOORS or requirements, but it is far more than an exercise in learning to push the tool’s buttons. Participants learn good requirements practices and how to carry them out using DOORS. The focus of the course is on creating happy customers and successful projects, through proper attention to stakeholders’ requirements.

Course Outline

Introduction to Requirements Engineering

Concepts of Requirements Engineering
Project Information Modelling Concepts
Benefits of Using a Requirements Tool

Structuring Project Requirements

Concepts of DOORS Projects, Modules, Linksets
Getting Started: logging on, creating a Project, defining Users
Creating life-cycle document Modules
Structuring documents

Organising and Retrieving Requirements

Concepts of Attributes, Types, and Prioritisation
Attributes, Types, Columns, Filtering, Sorting, Views
Printing, Page setup, Reports

Traceability, Documentation, Control

Concepts of Traceability
Import and Export
Sharing data with Suppliers
Change Proposals and the review cycle
History and Baselines
System Administration

Customising the Toolkit

Capabilities of the DOORS Extension Language
A taste of DXL Programming (optional)

Hands-on Requirements Elicitation Workshop

Viewpoints, Goals, Actors, Scenarios, Exceptions
Alternatives, Preconditions, Triggers, Constraints
Requirements Model Validation, Metrics, Checklist

Hands-on Information Modelling Workshop

Project Information Modelling
Outline Project Architecture (Formal Modules, Linksets)
Initial Document Design
Initial Project Dictionary

First-Pass Project Data Import and Structuring

Initial Data Import, trials, definition of import procedures
Data Structuring, requirements attributes
Data Navigation, filters, traceability columns, views

Review and Conclusion

Review of progress made, Next Steps, Reprise of workshop goals

Target Audience includes (in alphabetical order):

Hardware and Software Engineers
Project Managers
Requirements Engineers
System Analysts
System Developers
System Engineers or those performing a de facto SE function within their organisation
Test and Verification Engineers

Course Presenters:

Ian Alexander

Ian graduated from Cambridge in Natural Sciences and has an MSc in Computing Science from Imperial College, London. He has extensive experience in requirements management training and consultancy with telecommunications, aerospace, and transportation companies. He is an expert in scenario-based requirements. His latest book, ‘Writing Better Requirements’, is published by Addison-Wesley. He helps to run the BCS Requirements Engineering Specialist Group and the IEE Professional Network for Systems Engineers. He is a Chartered Engineer.

Andrew Farncombe

Andrew has a first class honours degree and spent his early career in the software industry. He subsequently moved into the defence and aerospace sector where he held a number of senior technical and management positions including that of Technical Director, and led the codification of Systems Engineering knowledge and experience for one of the groups as a whole. At JBA he has applied Systems Engineering to the aerospace and transportation industries. Andrew is Visiting Professor of Systems Engineering at Cranfield University.

Some comments from those attending the course:

"Excellent introduction to DOORS"
"The course was very useful for beginners with DOORS giving confidence to implement DOORS on a real project"
"[What I found most valuable was] hands on experience of DOORS and opportunity to try DOORS with real documents"
"[What I found most valuable were] discussions regarding Systems Engineering and the corresponding use of DOORS for those SE activities"
"[What I found most valuable were] principles of DOORS in a SE environment; scope for enhanced work with DXL; experienced view of making it work. Thank you!"
"It was a nice course, high quality. It is nice to listen to a person that knows about requirements and DOORS so well."

Finding out more

Prices on application. If you would like further information or to talk to someone about your Systems Engineering needs, please contact us as follows: