Glossary · Requirements and interfaces
Requirement status
German: Anforderungsstatus
In requirements engineering, requirement status is an attribute that shows where a requirement stands in its lifecycle, for example proposed, approved, implemented, verified, rejected or deleted.
- Systems engineering
In one sentence
Requirement status shows where a requirement stands in its lifecycle, such as proposed, approved, implemented or verified.
Example
Before the release, the project manager filters all requirements with status 'implemented' but not yet 'verified'.
How it applies
- Engineering: Status values and allowed transitions should be defined up front, so reports mean the same thing to everyone.
- Release: A Release decision typically requires all in-scope requirements to be verified or explicitly deferred.
- Documentation: The documentation team should document only functions whose requirements are at least implemented, and mark planned features clearly if they are mentioned at all.
- Reviews: Status changes such as 'approved' or 'verified' should be made only by authorized roles and recorded with date and person, so the status itself can serve as audit evidence.
Requirement status vs. lifecycle state
Requirement status describes one requirement. A Lifecycle state describes a whole product, component or document (for example in development, released, obsolete).