Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I take the time to describe an old tool that helps us do what is asked. There is room for doing more, but we should at least do what is asked.

There is an old tool called a compliance matrix. For mathematicians, I apologize for the word “matrix” as this is a table of items, not a matrix. This is a simple tool. A table in a word processor works as does a spreadsheet.

One column of the compliance matrix contains the requirements or the things with which we seek to comply. Take the text of a requirements statement, “You must do A, B, C, and D.” Put A, B, C, and D in one cell each. We now have one requirement in each row in the left-most cell of the table. Now we have a list of the requirements going down the left side of the table. The remainder of each row shows that we have complied with or met that requirement. These could be statements or pointers to other things that actually meet the requirement.

Viola. We have a table that lists each requirement and how we meet each requirement. If there is a requirement that we do not meet, that is obvious as there is a big blank spot in the table. Back to work. Meet that requirement.

This is the simplest form of the compliance matrix. It is built manually and slowly. If there are 20,000 requirements, and there are systems that have that many requirements, this method may cost a lot of money and bore someone to tears. There are fancy applications (what we used to call software) that folks sell that make the compliance matrix easier to build and use when the requirements go into the thousands. Fewer than a hundred requirements? Just build a table in a word processor.

Compliance is not exciting. It is necessary when I am paid to meet requirements. The compliance matrix is an old tool that helps.