Architecture Requirements Management and ADM Techniques
Requirements Management: the centre of the ADM
Requirements Management sits at the centre of the ADM and runs continuously through every phase. It does not own the content of requirements; it records them, stores them in the Requirements Repository, traces them to phases and artefacts, and performs a Requirements Impact Assessment whenever a change arrives. The Requirements Impact Assessment tells the Board which phases and artefacts are affected.
ADM techniques to know
- Architecture Principles (Name, Statement, Rationale, Implications).
- Stakeholder Management and the stakeholder map using power and interest.
- Architecture Views and Viewpoints (ISO/IEC 42010), with views selected to address stakeholder concerns.
- Business Scenarios and Business Transformation Readiness Assessment, both in Phase A.
- Gap Analysis, used from Phase B to Phase E.
- Interoperability Requirements and Capability-Based Planning.
- Migration planning techniques: Implementation Factor Assessment and Deduction Matrix, Consolidated Gaps/Solutions/Dependencies Matrix, Transition Architectures.
- Risk Management, plus Architecture Maturity Models and the Architecture Skills Framework in the Preliminary Phase.
Traps
- Requirements Management does not approve or reject requirements; governance does that.
- There is no Requirements Phase in the ADM; any option implying one is wrong.
- Viewpoint is the template or convention; view is the resulting representation.
- Gap analysis outputs feed Phase E but are produced in Phases B to D.
Rule of thumb
Every requirement must be traceable to a phase, a building block and a stakeholder concern. If it is not, the usual correct answer is to return it to Requirements Management for impact assessment.