The impact of reliability requirements on development life cycle

Abstract

This paper will discuss the importance of defining reliability and availability requirements upfront and its role in product development life cycle. In addition, it will review how to trace the requirements throughout the product life cycle. In designing a new product, much time and effort is spent defining time to market and functional requirements. In the mean time there is usually less attention paid to reliability, availability and fault management requirements. Therefore, defining clear product reliability & availability requirements becomes an afterthought, or it is only modeled once the product architecture is completed. At the first glance it makes sense, since the design team may not be familiar with reliability, availability and fault management requirements. The team tends to address the functional requirements before any other types of requirements. This is the natural course of action; however this type of thought process will lend itself to building a less desirable product. Knowing these facts, how do we address this necessary and important aspect of a product design as early in the development life cycle process as possible?