Technik was contracted by US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for the purpose of documenting SME, stakeholder and end user requirements in the form of a Requirements Specification Document (RSD) and an Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). In order to complete these tasks, Technik developed interview packages, contacted the identified individuals, and conducted workshops in order to compile the necessary data to develop the RSD & RTM. These documents were created and submitted for government review and approval.
Project Accomplishments
Technik supported the VA enterprise management framework and supported the VA efforts in accordance with the Program Accountability System (PMAS). In accordance with the contract, Technik performed the following tasks:
- Delivery of a completed PMP
- Delivery of a Monthly Progress Reports
- Performance of all contracted requirements within the six (6) month period of performance.
- Review of the Business Requirements Document (BRD), interview SMEs and delegates from stakeholder organizations and will compile and submit a RSD for review and acceptance.
- Use of the RSD template supplied in the PWS.
- Provided a RTM that ties each of the requirements in the RSD back to the BRD.
- Use of the RTM template supplied in the PWS.
- Obtained sufficient knowledge of the identified VistA applications to conduct analysis and provide the requested artifacts.
Requirements Identification: Technik reviewed and evaluated the Business Requirements Document and technical artifacts created by a VHA Innovations effort and assimilated the knowledge gained by participating in the product demonstrations to develop a list of system functions for extending the distribution of Mental Health Clinical reminders to other therapies and upgrade the Behavioral Health software to interface with VistA. For example, statements containing the word “shall” in the Business Requirements Document (BRD) were recorded as Functional specifications in the Requirements Specification Document (RSD). After identifying the Functional specifications we proceeded to identify and document the VA Design standards and the VA implementation standards that governed the development of this system.
Our analysts then proceeded to elaborate the system functions identified in this step as definitive, measurable, testable units during the Requirements Analysis phase using constructive interviews with the SMEs, stakeholders and end users. Technik identified a team of qualified personnel to conduct the necessary pre-planning, execution and delivery of the product to be used to develop a system solution that provided the best possible care for our veterans. This team successfully developed Requirements Specification Documents (RSD) and the supporting Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) by following the Technik Requirements development Methodology on previous task orders with VHA. .
Requirements Analysis: After gathering the major system functions, we proceeded to develop questionnaires that provide us with the mechanism to conduct focused Joint Application Development workshops to capture data needed to develop the Requirements Specification Document. Technik used a 5 step model to develop questionnaires to elicit requirements from the stakeholders. Questions were packaged into 5 sets that focused on functionality, usability, reliability or performance of the proposed system. For example, The Functionality question set identifies the type of outcome the user needs; Usability is concerned with characteristics such as aesthetics and consistency in the user interface; Reliability is concerned with characteristics such as availability (the amount of system “up time”), accuracy of system calculations, and the system’s ability to recover from failure. Performance is concerned with characteristics such as throughput, response time, recovery time, start-up time, and shutdown time and Supportability is concerned with characteristics such as testability, adaptability, maintainability, compatibility, configurability, installability, scalability, and localizability.
After developing the Questionnaires we got approval from the COTR to administer the questionnaires technical questions. Separate workshops were used to facilitate Requirements Analysis. We conducted four workshops with each occurrence focusing on one or more of the five FURPS + areas (Functionality, Usability, Reliability, Performance and Supportability). These workshops assisted our team understand the relationships between categories of requirements that, at first glance, appeared very disparate and prioritized the requirements to indicate the most important requirements for the finished system
Major characteristics of these workshops are listed below.
Functionality workshops: In a functionality JAD workshop, discussions stemed around the business needs for the product. These meetings helped our team understand how each end user needed to use the system for each of the seventeen (17) therapy protocols and what reminders need to be put in place to ensure the patient is receiving the best care. We will also held workshops to determine the export data elements needed from CPRS to BHL software to support registration of patients enrolled in the program and pass the necessary information to CPRS.
Usability workshops: In a usability JAD workshop, discussions included additional details about the user interaction. This type of workshop was geared towards the end user so an in-depth understanding of the user interface could be documented.
Reliability workshops: In reliability JAD workshop, discussions included identifying what are the requirements for recovery, accuracy of results, and computations.
Performance / Supportability workshop: In a performance JAD workshop, discussions included identifying what type of memory, processor, clusters, etc. was needed to support the system.
The outcome from these workshops is a sample elaboration of a single Functional requirement where findings have been collated as a detailed narration of the requirement specified in the Business Requirements Document. Our analysts elaborated each requirement in this fashion to ensure that a complete RSD is developed and delivered at the end.
Draft Specification Design: Incorporated within our development methodology is the FURPS+ model that is best suited to obtain the information necessary to complete a comprehensive RSD and RTM. In this phase we synthesized the information obtained in the Analysis phase through the various workshops by resolving ambiguities/incompleteness in specifications, and addressing areas that may be difficult to understand, especially when multiple systems are in use (BHL, VistA, etc.). This phase also used build use cases, which is a set of scenarios describing a coherent unit of functionality as seen by a particular user(s) of the system. The Use Case diagram graphed the use cases, the actors and interactions taking place in the use cases and the relationship among use cases and actors. There are typically different actors and in this case, there may be clinicians, physicians and/or care providers that will need access to the therapy reminder protocols within CPRS. Also during this phase we documented how the various actors interacted with the system that requires reminder dialog templates for each of the 17 therapy protocols in OMHS. It is key to determine how the user performs tasks with the application and what data they need to see within each task. Specifically, functional specification descriptions will describe how (1) each event starts and ends, (2) the normal flow of events, (3) alternate flow of events and (4) exceptions to the flow of events.
Technologies used
Technologies used include: VistA, Java, J2EE, BEA Web Logic, Vista Link RPC calls, Intersystems Cache Database,: Struts, Velocity, Spring, JQuery, iBatis, Struts-menu, Spring Security, Spring AOP and CXF Web Services.