requirements-lifecycle

# Requirements Lifecycle

## Overview

This skill guides the complete **requirements lifecycle** from elicitation through change management. It covers both CMMI process areas:

- **RD (Requirements Development)** - Creating requirements: elicitation, analysis, specification
- **REQM (Requirements Management)** - Maintaining requirements: traceability, change control, alignment

**Key capabilities**:
- Elicit requirements from stakeholders without gold plating
- Prioritize conflicting requirements (MoSCoW, value/effort)
- Create bidirectional traceability (requirements ↔ design ↔ tests)
- Manage requirements volatility with impact analysis
- Scale practices from Level 2 (user stories) → Level 3 (templates) → Level 4 (metrics)

**Reference**: See `docs/sdlc-prescription-cmmi-levels-2-4.md` Section 3.1 (Requirements Phase) for complete CMMI policy.

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## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

- **Requirements changing constantly** - Stakeholder keeps revising, need volatility management
- **Scope creep pressure** - "Just one more thing" additions, need change control
- **Traceability needed** - Level 3 compliance, audit preparation, creating RTM
- **Stakeholder conflicts** - Competing requirements from VPs, need resolution process
- **Documentation overhead concerns** - "How much is enough?" for Level 2 vs. Level 3
- **Creating new features** - Starting requirements gathering for major work
- **Audit preparation** - Need to establish requirements baseline and traceability

**When NOT to use this skill**:
- **Single-page prototypes or spikes** - Throwaway experiments don't need formal requirements
- **Solo developer projects** - Traceability overhead not justified for 1-person teams
- **Bug fixes within existing architecture** - Use issue tracking, not full requirements lifecycle

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## High-Level Guidance

### RD vs. REQM: Two Process Areas, One Lifecycle

**Requirements Development (RD)** = Creating new requirements
- Elicit needs from stakeholders (interv