Requirements: complexity vs difficulty

[N_i_c_o_l_e]

Hi,

For all elements you can set Complexity. For a Requirement element you can additionally set Difficulty.

So, can complex requirements be easy? Can difficult requirements be simple? Am I supposed to ignore Complexity and use only Difficulty for requirements?

Thanks

[fwoolz]

Hi Nicole,

By my lights, unless you have reason to use both metrics, I would use one OR the other, not both. One hypothetical case where both might be useful would be where one metric (say, difficulty) applies to compliance at the system level (i.e. not just software but hardware as well) while the other applies to software complexity. Or you can "roll your own" and use them both for whatever nefarious purposes you deem appropriate.

Perhaps Sparx has a whitepaper on the subject?

[Geert Bellekens]

Nicole,

I don't see an issue here. I can easily imagine complex but easy things, and on the other hand difficult, but not complex things :-/

Geert

[sargasso]

Nicole,

Just to complete Geert's logic diagram, there are also "simple and easy" things, like emigrating to a distant solar system, and "complex and difficult" things, like understanding EA.

 
bruce

Oh, OK. I'll be serious (and that's difficult).

Simple but difficult : Doing a handstand.
Complex but easy: Cooking a three course meal.

[fwoolz]

I see one or more Venn diagrams lurking somewhere in semantic space...

[N_i_c_o_l_e]

Thanks folks.  

Somewhere, in the EA documentation:

Difficulty: identifies the complexity of implementing the current requirement.

:-?

Also - on a related note - I have seen that Stability can only be defined for internal requirements (aka responsibilities) in EA. RaQuest adds Stability as a tagged value to its managed (external) requirements though...

[fwoolz]

Nicole,

Semantics and thesaurii aside for the moment, you can also (simply AND easily  ) "extend" EA requirements without use of an add-in (or overlay application ala RaQuest) by creating a profile with your own tagged values. Additionally, you can create your own structured tags (pre-defined tagged value types); these can have associated type specifications and rules defining the types of objects they can be applied to.

Fred W

[beginner]

The reason to have Complexity in the one part and Difficulty in the other is to be accounted to EAUI. What it probably meant is Difficulty (and the connected effort behind) to estimate Efforts. Complexity is obvious by viewing the model structure.

b.