I have just been assigned to a project to investigate tools for Requirements. Its really R&D in that it is investigation and evaluation, but no expectation of a major purchase.

So, I think will write about this in my blog, and look for input from fellow RQNGers about their knowledge and experience with any and all tools that claim to automate Requirements. We have seen lots of material on this topic here at RQNG, so I am going to wade back through to glean what I can.

Other discussions and posts on this site have lead me to think about Prototyping, for the first time in a long while. Of course, you can now look up anything, so Wikipedia has the following to say about Prototyping at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototypes and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Prototyping.

Given all that definition/description, I will actually answer my first question: Prototyping is Analysis, Or Design, or both together. My immediate interest would be its use in Analysis and 'documenting' of Requirements. My own experience has mainly been in what is commonly called "white-board prototyping", where I literally have the users is a room with a big white board and roughly sketch out what a screen or report could look like, and then start changing it; white-boards that print are worth their weight in gold for this, get one and use it if you can. What I find this most useful for is actually getting data requirements; show the business a sample of data fields on 'screen/window', and you will quickly hear if you have the right data, what data is missing and all that. If you follow a Common User Access (CUA) where one 'display' usually focuses on one data entity, you will soon have a series of displays drawn, showing how you jump from say, a "Purchase Order" screen to a list screen of Order Items, and you will actually end up with a screen image version of a ER data model.

OK, you have done your BA work, the project has proceeded and completed. What happens to the Requirements 'stuff' you created? Is it forgotten? Is it archived but never looked at? Is it updated in some way to reflect what was actually implemented? Is it used on future projects, like enhancements?

I ask all this because I understand there is an existing debate 'out there' about the value of Requirements artifacts as 'living documentation'. I have an opinion, but would like to hear what others think before weighing in (it might change as a result!).