Synopsis of Presentation

Abstract

Dr. Brackett presented the main points in his paper, tied them into some of the other presentations at the Workshop, and provided some of the background and rationale for the ideas presented in his paper. Among the points he made in his presentation were the following:

• Students who study requirements analysis typically learn some of the techniques for doing requirements analysis, but they do not gain experience in obtaining raw information from a variety of sources, synthesizing the requirements, and getting user review and approval.

• Most students have very little experience in verbal or written communication with people who are not sophisticated in the use of computers; most of them have never met a customer.

• The project course (which has been offered three times) has the following characteristics: The projects only produce requirements specifications, and do not go through the entire lifecycle process of design, development, etc.; projects are done by teams of three to five students; all projects are done for external customers; the projects produce industrial quality results; the customers are nonprofit organizations.