4.3.10. Stakeholder Requirements Definition Process
4.3.10. Stakeholder Requirements Definition Process
During the Stakeholder Requirements Definition process, the lead Service, Component, or designated program office receives requirements from relevant stakeholders and translates them into a set of technical requirements. The process helps ensure each individual stakeholder’s requirements, expectations, and perceived constraints are understood from the acquisition perspective. Failing to perform an exhaustive Stakeholder Requirements Definition process could result in significant requirements creep, rework due to misunderstanding of end-user needs, unexpected contract modifications, cost growth, and schedule slip. The objective of this process is to help ensure that stakeholder requirements are feasible, balanced, and fully integrated as more information is learned through requirements analysis.
Stakeholder Requirements Definition bridges the gap between the identification of a materiel need, described in the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) CJCSI 3170.01, and the acquisition of a materiel solution, governed by the Defense Acquisition System, i.e., DoDD 5000.01 and DoDI 5000.02.
The Stakeholder Requirements Definition process complements Requirements Analysis and Architecture Design (see DAG sections 4.3.11 Requirements Analysis Process and 4.3.12 Architecture Design Process, respectively). These three processes are recursively applied at each level of the system’s specifications and then iteratively within each level throughout development.
The DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) provides an approach for DoD architecture development, presentation, and integration for both warfighting operations and business operations and processes. For the Net Ready Key Performance Parameter (NR-KPP), JCIDS and CJCSI 6212.01 specify the data needed to elaborate, communicate, verify, and validate a system's interoperability requirements and design. System architectural descriptions contain three basic viewpoints: operational, system, and standards (or technical) viewpoints. In the case of the NR-KPP, these viewpoints contain essential architecture data that describe a system's interoperability requirements and design from multiple perspectives. DoDAF provides a standardized approach for capturing and presenting this architectural data. This standardization facilitates improved communication and sharing of technical information among various stakeholders and across organizational boundaries.
The Program Manager and Systems Engineer are responsible for supporting the Stakeholder Requirements Definition process and should work with the end user to establish and refine operational needs, attributes, performance parameters, and constraints documented in JCIDS documents.
Stakeholder Requirements Definition activities are performed throughout the acquisition life cycle and include the following activities:
- Elicit stakeholder capability objectives
- Identify stakeholders who have an interest in the system and maintain relationships with the stakeholders and their organizations throughout the system’s entire life cycle
- Elicit capability objectives from the stakeholders about what the system will accomplish and how well
- Define stakeholder requirements
- Define the perceived constraints on a system solution
- Define the relevant environment and support scenarios that can be used to analyze the operation of the system
- Define potential requirements that may not have been formally specified by any of the stakeholders
- Analyze and maintain stakeholder requirements
- Analyze requirements for specificity, completeness, consistency, measurability, testability, and feasibility
- Negotiate modifications with stakeholders to resolve requirement discrepancies
- Validate, record, and maintain stakeholder requirements throughout the system life cycle
- Support the Requirements Analysis process to establish and maintain a traceability matrix to document how the system requirements are intended to meet the stakeholder objectives and achieve stakeholder agreements
The authoritative source for stakeholder requirements are documents produced via the JCIDS such as the Initial Capabilities Document (ICD), Capability Development Document (CDD), and the Capability Production Document (CPD). JCIDS analyzes gaps in existing and/or future warfighting operations and provides a process that allows the Joint Requirements Oversight Council to balance joint equities and make informed decisions on validation and prioritization of capability needs.
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