Volere

Requirements Specification
Template
Edition 6.1

James & Suzanne Robertson

Principals of the Atlantic Systems Guild
London, Aachen & New York
Email [email protected] , [email protected]

Copyright © 2000 Atlantic Systems Guild

This document may be used, modified or copied for internal use, provided this
copyright is acknowledged. This is intended to form the basis of your requirements
specification. It may not be sold, or used for commercial gain or other purposes
without prior written permission.

Updates to this template are posted on our web site www.systemsguild.com

 The ............................. System
Requirements Specification
Version ...

Table of Contents
PROJECT DRIVERS
1. The Purpose of the Product
2. Client, Customer and other Stakeholders
3. Users of the Product
PROJECT CONSTRAINTS
4. Mandated Constraints
5. Naming Conventions and Definitions
6. Relevant Facts and Assumptions
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
7. The Scope of the Work
8. The Scope of the Product
9. Functional and Data Requirements
NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
10. Look and Feel Requirements
11. Usability Requirements
12. Performance Requirements
13. Operational Requirements
14. Maintainability and Portability Requirements
15. Security Requirements
16. Cultural and Political Requirements
17. Legal Requirements
PROJECT ISSUES
18. Open Issues
19. Off-the-Shelf Solutions
20. New Problems
21. Tasks
22. Cutover
23. Risks
24. Costs
25. User Documentation and Training
26. Waiting Room
27. Ideas for Solutions

Specification prepared by ........................................ Date ...................

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Preamble
This is a template for a requirements specification. Select all the sections
that apply to your project, and replace the entries with your text. Delete any
sections that are not relevant. Add any applicable new sections, and any
facts that are relevant to your product.

Volere
Volere is the result of many years of practice, consulting and research in
requirements engineering. We have packaged our experience in the form of a
generic requirements process, requirements training, requirements
consultancy, requirements audits and this requirements template.
The Volere requirements process is described in the book:
Mastering the Requirements Process by Suzanne and James Robertson,
Addison-Wesley, London, 1999. ISBN is 0-201-36046-2
Public seminars on Volere are run on a regular basis in Europe, United States
and Australia.
In house seminars and consulting on Volere can be arranged on demand.
For further information contact: The Atlantic Systems Guild, 11 St Mary’s
Terrace, London, W2 1SU, United Kingdom.
email: [email protected] [email protected]
web: http://www.systemsguild.com

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 Requirements Types
Functional requirements are the fundamental subject matter of the system
and are measured by concrete means like data values, decision making logic
and algorithms.
Non-functional requirements are the behavioral properties that the specified
functions must have, such as performance, usability, etc. Non-functional
requirements can be assigned a specific measurement. This template will
give examples of quantifying non-functional requirements.
Project constraints identify how the eventual product must fit into the world.
For example the product might have to interface with or use some existing
hardware, software or business practice, or it might have to fit within a
defined budget or be ready by a defined date.
Project drivers are the business- related forces. For example the purpose of
the product is a project driver, as are all of the stakeholders – each for
different reasons.
Project issues define the conditions under which the project will be done. We
include these in the requirements specification to present a coherent picture
of all the factors that contribute to the success or failure of the project.

Testing requirements
You start testing the as soon as you start to specify the requirements.
You first test is to determine if you can quantify the requirement by
specifying its fit criterion. This fit criterion is an objective measure of the
requirement’s meaning; it is the criterion for evaluating whether or not a
given solution fits the requirement. If a fit criterion cannot be adequately
specified, then the requirement is ambiguous, or ill-understood. If there is no
fit criterion, then there is no way of knowing if a solution matches the
requirement.

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 Requirement Shell
Use this requirement shell as a guide for writing each requirement.

List of events /
use cases that
The type from need this
the template requirement

Requirement #: Unique id Requirement Type: Event/use case #:

Description: A one sentence statement of the intention of the requirement

Rationale: A justification of the requirement

Source: Who raised this requirement?

Fit Criterion: A measurement of the requirement such that it is possible to
test if the solution matches the original requirement
Other requirements
that cannot be
Customer Satisfaction: Customer Dissatisfaction: implemented if this
Dependencies: A list of other requirements that have Conflicts: one is
some dependency on this one
Supporting Materials: Pointer to documents that
History: Creation, changes, illustrate and explain this
deletions, etc. requirement
Volere
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Degree of stakeholder happiness if this requirement

is successfully implemented.
Scale from 1 = uninterested to 5 = extremely pleased.
Measure of stakeholder unhappiness if this
requirement is not part of the final product.
Scale from 1 = hardly matters to 5 = extremely displeased.

Requirement Numbering
Give each requirement a unique identifier to make it traceable throughout
the development process. The numbering scheme suggested in the
requirement shell is:
Requirement # is the next unique requirement number
Requirement Type is the section number from the template for this
type of requirement
The inclusion of the section number is not absolutely necessary
because we do have a unique requirement id. However it serves as a

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 reminder of what this requirement relates to and helps to remind why
the requirement is considered important. Also the ability to compare
requirements of the same type makes it easier to identify
contradictions and duplications.
For example:
A functional requirement is section 9, and the next unique number is 128.
Requirement #: 128Requirement Type: 9
We shall record the time when we are notified of a gritter truck
breakdown

A performance requirement comes from section 12, and the next unique
number is 129.
Requirement #: 129Requirement Type: 12
Gritter truck drivers shall be informed of their schedule 30
minutes before leaving the depot.
Event/use case #
is the identifier of a business event or use case that contains this
requirement. There might be several Event/use case #’s for one requirement
because the same requirement might relate to a number of events. The terms
event and use case are already widely used in the systems development
world.
We use the term business event to mean a business related happening that
causes an event-response within the work that we are studying.
We use the term event-driven use case (or product use case) to mean a user-
defined (or actor defined) piece of activity within the context of the product.
Business events and product use cases provide a way of grouping business-
related requirements and tracing them through into implementation; they are
used throughout the Volere development process.

Customer Value
Customer Value is a measure of how much your client cares about each
requirement.
Ask your stakeholders to grade each requirement for Customer Satisfaction
on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 means mild interest if this requirement is
satisfactorily implemented, and 5 means they will be very happy if this
requirement is satisfactorily implemented
The stakeholders also grade each requirement for Customer Dissatisfaction
on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 means that it hardly matters, and 5 means

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 that they will be extremely displeased if this requirement is not satisfactorily
implemented
The point of having a satisfaction and a dissatisfaction rating is that it guides
your clients to think of the requirement from two different perspectives, and
helps you to uncover what they care about most deeply.

Dependencies
This keeps track of other requirements that have an impact on this
requirement.
If the dependency exists because requirements use the same information,
then use of standard naming conventions and definitions (see Section 5) will
implement this dependency.
Other dependencies exist because a solution to this requirement has a
positive or negative effect on solutions to other requirements. Capture these
types of dependencies by cross referencing the requirements.
Some requirements, especially project drivers and project constraints, have
an impact on all the other requirements.

Conflicts
This keeps track of other requirements that disagree with this one. Conflicts
that are caused by mistake are solved simply by bringing them to the surface
and resolving them. Other conflicts are because of true differences in
opinion/intention. These are the conflicts that might eventually need to be
addressed using negotiation or mediation techniques. There is nothing wrong
with having conflicting requirements providing you know that you have them.
Then you are in a position to address the conflict.

History
We follow the requirement from the date that it was created, through all its
changes. We minimise future confusion by recording the rationale for making
major changes. When a requirement is deleted we record when and the
rationale behind the deletion. The date that the requirement passes its
quality checks, and who passed it, is also recorded.

Definitions used in this template

Context of the Product
The boundaries between the product that we intend to build and the people,
organisations, other products and pieces of technology that have a direct
interface with the product.

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 Context of the Work
The subject matter, people and organisations that might have an impact on
the requirements for the product. The context of study identifies the
intersection of all the domains of interest.
Client
The person or organisation for whom the product is being built, usually
responsible for paying for the development of the product.
Customer
The person or organisation who will buy the product (note that the same
person/organisation might play both the client, customer and sometimes user
roles)
Design or Systems Design
Crafting a solution to fit the requirements.
Developers
The people who specify and build the product.
Domain of Interest
A subject matter area that has some relevance to the context of study.
Non-Functional Requirement
A property that the eventual product must have.
Event
We use the term business event to mean a business related happening within
a system adjacent to the work that we are studying. The happening causes
the work to produce an event-response.
Fit Criterion
Objective measure for defining the meaning of a requirement, and eventually
testing whether a given solution satisfies the original requirement.
Functional Requirement
An action that the product must be able to take, something that the product
must do.
Global Constraint
Constraints that apply to the system as a whole.
Product
This is what we are attempting to deliver. This could be a piece of software,
the installation of a package, a set of procedures, a piece of hardware, a
piece of machinery, a new organization, or almost anything.

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 Requirement
A measurable statement of intent about something that the product must do,
or a property that the product must have, or a constraint on the system.
Stakeholder
A stakeholder is a person who can affect the outcome/success of the project
and/or is affected by its outcome/success.
System
The business system whose requirements are being studied.
Systems Analysis
Detailed study of the requirements, intended to prove their workability as
input to systems design.
Use case
We use the term event-driven use case (or product use case) to mean a user-
defined (or actor defined) piece of activity within the context of the product.
User or End User
Someone who has some kind of direct interface with the product.

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1 The Purpose of the Product
1a. The user problem or background to the project effort.
Content
A short description of the work context and the situation that triggered the
development effort. It should also describe the work that the user wants to
do with the delivered product.
Motivation
Without this statement, the project lacks justification and direction.
Considerations
You should consider whether or not the user problem is serious, and whether
and why it needs to be solved.

1b. Goals of the product.

Content
This boils down to one, or at most a few, sentences that say “What do we
want this product for?” In other words, the real reason that the product is
being developed.
Motivation
There is a real danger of this purpose getting lost along the way. As the
development effort heats up, and the customer and developers discover more
and more what is possible, it may well be that the system as it is being
constructed wanders away from the original goals. This is a bad thing unless
there is some deliberate act by the client to change the goals. It may be
necessary to appoint a person to be “custodian of the goals”, but it is
probably sufficient to make the goals public, and periodically remind the
developers of it. It should be mandatory to acknowledge the goals at every
review session.
Examples
“We want to give immediate and complete response to customers ordering
our goods over the telephone.”
“We want to be able to forecast the weather.”
Fit Criterion
An objective measure that will enable testing to determine if the goal has
been met by the product.

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2 Client, Customer and other Stakeholders
2a. The client is the person/s paying for the development, and owner of the
delivered system.
Content
This item must give the name of the client. It is permissible to have several
names, but more than three negates the point.
Motivation
The client has the final acceptance of the system, and thus must be satisfied
with the system as delivered. Where the system is being developed for in-
house consumption, the roles of the client and the customer may be filled by
the same person. If you cannot find a name for your client, then perhaps you
should not be building the product.
Considerations
Sometimes, when building a package or a product for external users, the
client is the marketing department. In this case, a person from the marketing
department must be named as the client.

2b. The customer is the person/s who will buy the product from the client.
Content
The name of the person who plays the role of the customer for the product.
In the case of in house development the roles of the client and the customer
are often played by the same person. In the case of the development of a
mass market product there may be several people playing the role of
customer. In the case of a product that is being developed for an
international market, there might be a different customer (or customer
profile) in each country.
Motivation
The customer role is ultimately responsible for deciding whether or not to
buy the product from the client. The product must be built to satisfy the aims
of the customer/s whilst conforming to the constraints of the client. Even if
the customer/s are people who work for another part of the client’s
organization, they might still have the authority to decide whether or not to
invest budget in the new product.

2c. Other stakeholders

Content
The roles and (if possible) names of other people and organizations who are
affected by the product or whose input is needed in order to build the
product.

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 Examples of stakeholders include:
Users (detailed in section 3)
Sponsor
Testers
Business Analysts
Technology Experts
System Designers
Marketing Experts
Legal Experts
Domain Experts
Usability Experts
Representatives of external associations
For each type of stakeholder identify:
• Stakeholder Identification (some combination of role/job title,
person name, organisation name),
• Knowledge needed by the project,
• Necessary degree of involvement for that stakeholder/knowledge
combination,
• Degree of influence for that stakeholder/knowledge combination,
• Agreement on how to address conflict between stakeholders who
have an interest in the same knowledge
Motivation
Failure to recognize stakeholders results in missing requirements.

3 Users of the Product

3a. The users of the product
Content
A list of the potential users of the product. For each category of user, provide
the following information:
User name – This is most likely to be the name of a user group like:
schoolchildren, road engineers, project managers.
User role – Summarizes the users’ responsibilities.

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 Subject matter experience – Summarizes the users’ knowledge of the
business. Rate as novice, journeyman or master.
Technological experience – this describes the users’ experience with
relevant technology. Rate as novice, journeyman or master.
Other user characteristics – Describe any characteristics of the users that
have an effect on the requirements and eventual design of the product.
Describe things like:
Physical abilities/disabilities
Intellectual abilities/disabilities
Attitude to job
Attitude to technology
Education
Linguistic skills
Age group
Gender
Motivation
Users are human beings who interface with the product in some way. The
role of the client is to pay for the development of the product and the role of
the customer is to buy the product. The role of the user is to use the product
to do work. You use the characteristics of the users to define the usability
requirements for the product.
Examples
Users can come from wide, and sometimes unexpected, sources. Consider
the possibility of your users being clerical staff, shop workers, managers,
highly-trained operators, general public, casual users, passers-by, illiterate
people, tradesmen, students, test engineers, foreigners, children, lawyers,
remote users, people using the system over the telephone or Internet
connection, emergency workers, and so on.

3b. The priorities assigned to users

Content
Attach to each category of user a priority rating. This gives the importance
and precedence of the user. Prioritize the users into:
Key users. These are critical to the continued success of the product.
Give greater importance to requirements generated by this
category of user.
Secondary users. They will use the product, but their opinion of it has
no effect on its long-term success. Where there is a conflict

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 between secondary users’ requirements and those of key users the
key users take precedence.
Unimportant users. This category of user is given the lowest priority.
It includes infrequent, unauthorized and unskilled users, and
people who misuse the product.
Percentage of this type of user – this is intended to assess the amount of
consideration given to this category of user.
Motivation
If some users are considered to be more important to the product, or the
organization, then this should be stated because it should affect the way that
you design the product. For instance, you need to know if there is a large
customer who has specifically asked for the product, and if they do not get
what they want then the results could be a significant loss of business.
Some users may be listed as having no impact on the product. This means
that the users will make use of the product, but have no vested interest in it.
In other words, these users will not complain, nor will they contribute. Any
special requirements from these users will have a lower design priority.

3c. User participation

Content
Where appropriate attach to the category of user, a statement of the
participation that you think will be necessary to provide the requirements.
Describe the contribution that you expect this user to provide – business
knowledge, interface prototyping, usability requirements etc. If possible,
assess the minimum amount of time that this user must spend for you to be
able to determine the complete requirements.
Motivation
Many projects fail through lack of user participation, sometimes this is
because the required degree of participation was not made clear. When
people have to make a choice between getting their everyday work done and
working on a new project, the everyday work takes priority. This requirement
makes it clear, from the outset, that specified user resources must be
allocated to the project.

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4 Mandated Constraints
This section describes constraints on the requirements and the eventual design
of the product.

4a. Solution constraints

Content
This specifies constraints on the way that the problem must be solved. You
can think of these as mandated solutions. Carefully describe the mandated
technology, include the appropriate version numbers, and a measurement of
how you will test compliance. If possible, you should also explain the reason
for using the technology.
Motivation
To identify constraints that must be part of the final product. Your client,
customer or user may have design preferences. If these are not met then
your solution is not acceptable.
Examples
The product must use the current 2-way radio system to communicate with
the drivers in their trucks.
The product must use the Windows NT operating system.
The product must be a hand-held device.
Considerations
We want to define the boundaries within which we can solve the problem.
Be careful because anyone who has experience/exposure to a piece of
technology tends to see requirements in terms of that technology. This
tendency leads people to impose solution constraints for the wrong reason
and it’s very easy for untrue constraints to creep into a specification. If you
impose untrue constraints the danger is that you do not have the creative
freedom to come up with the best solution to the problem. The solution
constraints should only be those that are absolutely non-negotiable. In other
words, however you solve this problem you must use this particular
technology. Any other solution would be unacceptable.

4b. Implementation environment

Content
This describes the technological and physical environment in which the
product will be installed. This includes automated, mechanical,
organizational and other devices. These include the non-human adjacent
systems.

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 Motivation
To describe the technological environment into which the product must fit.
The environment places design constraints on the product. This part of the
specification provides enough information about the environment for the
designers to make the product successfully interact with its surrounding
technology.
The operational requirements are derived from this description.
Examples
This can be shown as a diagram, with some kind of icon to represent each
separate device or person (processor). Draw arrows to identify the interfaces
between the processors and annotate them with their form and content .
Considerations
All the component parts of the current system, regardless of their type,
should be included in the description of the implementation environment.
If the product is to affect, or be important to the current organization,
include an organization chart.

4c. Partner applications

Content
This describes applications that are not part of the product but with which
the product will collaborate. These can be external applications, commercial
packages or pre-existing in-house applications.
Motivation
To provide information about design constraints that are caused by using
partner applications. By describing or modeling these partner applications,
you discover and highlight potential problems of integration.
Examples
This section can be completed by including written descriptions, models or
references to other specifications. The descriptions must include a full
specification of all interfaces that will have an effect on the product.
Considerations
Examine the work context model to determine if any of the adjacent systems
should be treated as partner applications. It might also be necessary to
examine some of the details of the work to discover relevant partner
applications.

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 4d. Commercial off the shelf packages
Content
This describes applications that must be used to implement some of the
requirements for the product.
Motivation
To identify and describe existing commercial products that must be
incorporated into the eventual product. The characteristics, behavior and
interfaces of the package are design constraints.
Examples
This section can be completed by including written descriptions, models or
references to vendor’s specifications.
Considerations
The use of a specific package has been mandated. When gathering
requirements you may discover requirements that are in serious conflict with
the behavior and characteristics of the package. Keep in mind that the use of
the package was mandated before the full extent of the requirements was
known. In light of your discoveries you must consider whether the package is
a viable choice when all the requirements are known. If the use of the
package is not negotiable, then the conflicting requirements will have to be
discarded.

4e. Anticipated workplace environment

Content
This describes the workplace in which the users will work and use the
product. This should describe any features of the workplace that could have
an effect on the design of the product.
Motivation
To identify characteristics of the physical workplace so that the product is
designed to compensate for any difficulties.
Examples
The printer is a considerable distance from the user’s desk. This constraint
suggests that printed output should be de-emphasized.
The workplace is noisy, so audible signals might not work.
The workplace is outside so the product must be waterproof, have displays
that are visible in sunlight and allow for the effect of wind on any paper
output.
The user will be standing up or working in positions where he must hold the
product. This suggests a hand-held product but only a careful study of the

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 users’ work and workplace will provide the necessary input to identifying the
operational requirements.
Considerations
The physical work environment constrains the way that work is done. The
product should overcome whatever difficulties exist, however you might
consider a redesign of the workplace as an alternative to having the product
compensate for it.

4f. How long do the developers have to build the system?

Content
Any known deadlines, or windows of opportunity, should be stated here.
Motivation
To identify critical times and dates that have an effect on product
requirements. If the deadline is short, then the requirements must be kept to
whatever can be built within the time allowed.
Examples
To meet scheduled software releases.
There may be other parts of the business or other software products that are
dependent on this product.
Windows of marketing opportunity.
Scheduled changes to the business that will use your product. For example
the organization may be starting up a new factory and your product is
needed before production can commence.
Considerations
State deadline limitations that exist by stating the date and describing why it
is critical. Also identify prior dates where parts of your product need to be
available for testing.
You should also ask questions about the impact of not meeting the deadline
like:
What happens if we don’t build the system by ......?
What is the financial impact of not having, the system by…?

4g. What is the financial budget for the system?

Content
The budget for the system, expressed in money or available resources.
Motivation
The requirements must not exceed the budget. This may constrain the
number of requirements that can be included in the product.

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 The intention of this question is to determine if the product is really wanted.
Considerations
Is it realistic to build a product within this budget? If the answer to this
question is no, then either the client is not really committed to building the
product or does not place enough value on the product. In either case you
should consider whether it is worthwhile continuing.

5 Naming Conventions and Definitions

This section gives definitions of all terms, including acronyms, used in the
project.
Content
A dictionary containing the meaning of all the names used within the
requirements specification. Select names carefully to avoid giving a different,
unintended meaning.
This dictionary should build on the standard names that your organization, or
industry, uses. The names should also reflect the terminology in current use
within the work area.
The dictionary contains all important names that are used by the project. For
each name write a succinct definition. This definition must be agreed by the
appropriate stakeholders.
Motivation
Names are very important. They invoke meanings that, if carefully defined,
can save hours of explanations. Attention to names at this stage of the
project helps to highlight misunderstandings.
The dictionary produced during requirements is used and added to
throughout the project.
Examples
Gritter Truck -- a truck used for spreading de-icing substances on roads in
winter.

Considerations
Make use of existing references and data dictionaries. Obviously it is best to
avoid renaming existing items unless they are so ambiguous that they cause
confusion.
From the start of the project emphasise the need to avoid homonyms and
synonyms and explain how they increase the cost of the project.

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 Later on, as the analysis progresses, this description will be expanded to
define all the elementary terms that describe a gritter truck.
Gritter Truck = Truck Registration Number, Truck Capacity,
Truck Service Status
As we progress through the requirements specification each of the
elementary terms will be defined in detail
Truck Capacity - the number of tonnes of grit that can be carried by a truck.
From 0.5 to 2 tonnes

6 Relevant Facts and Assumptions

6a.External factors that have an effect on the product, but are not mandated
requirements constraints.
Content
Statements describing other forces, systems, activities in the world that have
an effect on this system.
Motivation
Relevant facts might contribute to requirements. They will have an effect on
the eventual design of the product.
Examples
One ton of de-icing material will treat 3 miles of single lane roadway.
The existing application is 10,000 lines of C code.

6b. Assumptions that the team are making about the project
Content
A list of the assumptions that the developers are making. These might be
about the intended operational environment, but can be about anything that
has an effect on the product.
Motivation
To make people declare the assumptions that they are making. Also to make
everyone on the project aware of assumptions that have been made.
Examples
Assumptions about new laws or political decisions.
Assumptions about what your developers expect to be ready in time for them
to use. For example, other parts of your products, the completion of other
projects, software tools, software components, etc.

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 Assumptions about the technological environment in which the product will
operate. These assumptions should highlight areas of expected compatibility.
The software components that will be available to the developers.
Other products being developed at the same time as this one.
Availability and capability of bought-in components.
Dependencies on computer systems or people external to this project
Considerations
We often make unconscious assumptions. It is necessary to talk to the
members of the project team to discover any unconscious assumptions that
they have made. Ask stakeholders (both technical and business-related)
questions like “What software tools are you expecting to be available, will
there be any new software products, are you expecting to use a current
product in a new way, are there any business changes you are assuming we
will be able to deal with....?” It is important to state these assumptions up
front. You might also consider the probability of whether or not the
assumption is correct, and where relevant, a list of alternatives if something
that is assumed does not happen.

7 The Scope of the Work

7a. The context of the work.
Content
The work context diagram identifies the work that we need to investigate in
order to be able to build the product. Note that this includes more than the
intended product. Unless we understand the work that the product will
support, there is little chance of building a product that will fit cleanly into
its environment.
The adjacent systems on the example context diagram e.g. Weather
Forecasting Bureau, indicate other subject matter domains (systems,
people and organizations) that need to be understood. The interfaces
between the adjacent systems and the work context indicate why we are
interested in the adjacent system. In the case of Weather Forecasting
Bureau, we can say that we are interested in the details of when, how,
where, who and why they produce the District Weather Forecast
information.
Motivation
To clearly define the boundaries for the work study and requirements effort.
Without this definition, there is little chance of building a product that will
fit seamlessly into its environment.

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 Examples

Weather
Stations Weather
Forecasting
Thermal
Bureau
Map
Suppliers Weather
Station District
Readings Weather
Thermal Forecasts
Maps Untreated
.0 Road
Reminder
Road Treated
De-icing Road
Changed
Work Truck
Road Context Change
Changed Amended
Weather De icing
Station Schedule
New Road De
Weather icing
Station Failed
Schedule
Weather Truck Truck
Station Breakdown Depots
Road Alert
Engineering

Considerations
The names used on the context diagram should be consistent with the
naming conventions discussed in section 5.

7b. Work partitioning

Content
An event list, identifying all the business events to which the work responds.
The business events are user-defined. The response to each event represents
a portion of work that contributes to the total functionality of the work.
The event list includes:
Event Name
Input from other systems (identical with name on context diagram)
Output from other systems (identical with name on context diagram)

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 Internal objects/entities that are connected to this business event. For
example, both events 8 and 9 would be connected to an internal object
called road. In other words there is a need within the context to
remember information about roads and that information is relevant to
events 8 and 9 (and many other events as well). It is this identification
of common internal objects that provides a link between events.
Motivation
To identify logical chunks of the system that can be used as the basis for
discovering detailed requirements. These business events also provide the
subsystems that can be used as the basis for managing detailed analysis and
design.
Example

Event List

Event Name Input & Output

1. Weather Station transmits reading Weather Station Readings (in)
2. Weather Bureau forecasts weather District weather Forecast (in)
3. Road engineers advise changed roads Changed Road (in)
4. Road Engineering installs new weather New Weather Station (in)
station
5. Road Engineering changes weather station Changed Weather Station (in)
6. Time to test Weather Stations Failed Weather Station Alert (out)
7. Truck Depot changes a truck Truck Change (in)
Amended De-icing Schedule (out)
8. Time to detect icy roads Road De-icing Schedule (out)
9. Truck treats a road Treated Road (in)
10 Truck Depot reports problem with truck Truck Breakdown (in)
Amended Gritting Schedule (out)
11. Time to monitor road gritting Untreated Road Reminder (out)

Considerations
Attempting to list the business events is a way of testing the work context.
This activity uncovers uncertainty and misunderstanding about the project
and helps with precise communications.

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8 The Scope of the Product
8a Product Boundary
Use case diagram identifies boundaries between the users and product.

Highways
Department Truck Depot
Clerk Monitor Engineer
11 Untreated
Update Weather Roads
Forecast 2 Record
9 Treated
Roads

Produce
Thermal 8 De-icing
Mapping Schedule
Database
Record Truck
7 Changes
Record Weather
1 Station Identify Faulty
Readings Weather Station
Amend 6
10 De-icing
Schedule
Record
4 New Weather
Station Record
Weather 3 Road Road
Station Changes Engineering
Computer
Record Weather
Station Changes
5
You derive the product use cases by deciding where the product boundary
should be for each one of the business events. These decisions are based on
your knowledge of the work and the requirements constraints.

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 8b Use case list
The use case diagram is a graphical way of summarizing all the use cases
relevant to the product. If you have a large number of use cases, we find 15-
20, is around the limit, then it is better to list the use cases and model each
one individually. For each use case on the list you should have: use case
number, user/actor name, use case description and use case fit criterion.
Also if you have built a use case description and/or any scenario models for
this use case then this list can point to them.

Use Case 8
User/actor name
Truck Depot Engineer
Description
Produce road de-icing schedule
Fit Criterion
Sensor readings shall be used to prepare a schedule for the de-icing trucks.
Use Case Scenarios
The description for this use case describes the normal way that it operates.
Scenario models 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 illustrate exception cases for this use case.

Each of the individual requirements that relates to this use case will
contribute to meeting the fit criterion of the use case. Each individual
requirement will also have its own detailed fit criterion.

9 Functional and Data Requirements

9a. Functional Requirements.
Content
A specification for each individual functional requirement. As with all types
of requirements, use the Requirements Shell. A full explanation is included
in this template’s introductory material.
Motivation
To specify the detailed functional requirements that must be supported by
the system.

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 Examples
Requirement #: 75 Requirement Type: 9 Event/use case #: 7, 9

Description: The product shall record all the roads that have been treated

Rationale: To be able to schedule untreated roads and highlight potential danger

Source: Arnold Snow - Chief Engineer
Fit Criterion: The recorded treated roads shall agree with the drivers’road treatment
logs and shall be up to date within 30 minutes of the completion of the
road’s treatment
Customer Satisfaction: 3 Customer Dissatisfaction: 5
Dependencies: All requirements using road and Conflicts: 105
scheduling data
Supporting Materials: Work context diagram, terms
definitions in section 5
History: Created February 29,2000
Volere
Copyright © Atlantic Systems Guild

Fit Criterion
Each functional requirement must have a fit criterion. The fit criterion
depends on the required action. For example, if the requirement is to record
some data, then the fit criterion would say that the data must be able to be
retrieved and must match certain standards. For calculations, the resulting
data must conform to predicted results.
Considerations
If you have produced an event/use case list (see 7b & 8a) you can use them
to help you trigger the functional requirements for each event/use case. If
you have not produced an event/use case list, give each functional
requirement a unique number and, to help with traceability, they can be
partitioned into event/use case-related groups later in the development
process.

9b. Data requirements.

Content
A specification of the essential subject matter/business
objects/entities/classes that are germane to the system. This might take the
form of a first-cut data model, an object model or a domain model. Or it
might be adequately dealt with by defining the terms in the dictionary
described in section 5. We have included examples of 2 notations for
modelling business data, there are many others.

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 Motivation
To clarify the system’s subject matter and thereby trigger requirements that
have not yet been thought of.

Example 1
The following is a model of the system’s business subject matter using the
Unified Modelling Language (UML) class model notation.

District Road Road Truck

✳ 1 ✳ Section ✳✳
✳

✳
✳ 1 ✳
✳ ✳ 1 1
Forecast Temperature Sensor Depot
Reading ✳
1

S
Failed
Sensor

Example 2
The following is a model of the business data using Peter Chen’s
Entity/Relationship modelling notation.

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 District N Location N Road Road
Section N Scheduling

N 1 N
N
Composing 1 N
Prediction

Truck
Sensor Maintenance
N
N
Installation
1 N
Forecast 1
S Measurement

N Management
1
Failed Depot
Sensor Temperature
Reading

Fit Criterion
You can use any type of data or object model to capture this knowledge. The
issue is to capture the meaning of the business subject matter and the
connections between the individual parts and that you are consistent within
your project. If you have an established company standard notation, then use
that as it will help you to reuse knowledge between projects.
To support your data model you would also define:
Name of business object/entity (use naming convention from 5)
Statement of the purpose of the class/entity
Description of relationships between classes/entities
Attributes of the object/entity (use conventions from 5)

Considerations
Are there any data/object models for similar/overlapping systems that might
be a useful starting point? Is there a domain model for the subject matter
dealt with by this system?

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10 Look and Feel Requirements
10a. The interface
Content
A description of the spirit of the interface. This can be in the form of text
descriptions or preliminary sketches of a possible interface.
The intention of this section is to state requirements relating to the interface.
Your client may have given you particular demands such as style, colours to
be used, degree of interaction and so on. This section captures the
requirements for the interface rather than the design for the interface.
Motivation
To capture the expectations, the constraints and the client’s demands for the
interface before designing it.
Examples
The product shall have the same layout as the district maps that the
engineering department uses now.
The product shall use the company colours.
The product shall be colourful and attractive to a teenage audience.
The product shall appear authoritative.
Considerations
Interface design may overlap the requirements gathering process. This
particularly true if you are using prototyping as part of your requirements
process. As prototypes develop it is important to capture the requirements
that relate to the look and feel. In other words, be sure that you understand
your client’s intentions for the product’s look and feel. Record these as
requirements instead of merely having a prototype to which the client has
nodded his approval.

10b. The style of the product

Content
A description of salient features of the product that are related to the way a
potential customer will see the product. For example, if your client wants the
product to appeal to the business executive, then a look and feel requirement
is that the product has a conservative and professional appearance. Similarly
if the product is for sale to children, then the look and feel requirement is
that it be colourful and look like it’s intended for children.
The requirements that you record here will guide the designers to produce a
product as envisioned by your client.

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 Motivation
Given the state of today’s market and people’s expectations, we cannot
afford to build products that have an inadequate appearance. Once the
functional requirements are satisfied, it is often the appearance of products
that determines whether they are successful or not. Your task in this section
is to determine precisely how the product shall appear to its intended
consumer.
Considerations
The look and feel requirements specify the your client’s vision of the
product’s appearance. The requirements may at first seem to be rather vague
– “conservative and professional appearance” – but these will be quantified
by their fit criterion. The fit criterion in this case give you the opportunity to
extract from your client precisely what is meant, and gives the designer
precise instructions on what he is to accomplish.

11 Usability Requirements
11a. Ease of use.
Content
This section describes your client’s aspirations for how easy it will be for the
intended users of the product to operate it. The product’s usability is derived
from the abilities of the expected users of the product and the complexity of
its functionality.
Motivation
To guide the product’s designers into building a product that will meet the
expectations of its eventual users.
Examples
The product shall be easy for 11 year-old children to use.
The product shall help the user to avoid making mistakes.
The product shall make the users want to use it.
The product shall be used by people with no training, and possibly no
understanding of English.
Fit Criterion
These examples may seem simplistic, but they do express the intention of the
client. To completely specify what is meant by the requirement it is
necessary to add a measurement of acceptance. We call this a fit criterion.
The fit criterion for the above examples would be:

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 [An agreed percentage, say 90%] of a test panel of 11 year olds shall be able
to successfully complete [list of tasks] within [specified time]
One month’s use of the product shall result in a total error rate of less than
[an agreed percentage, say 2%]
An anonymous survey shall show that [an agreed percentage, say 75%] of the
users are regularly using the product after [an agreed time] familiarization
period.
Considerations
Refer back to Section 3, the Users of the System, to ensure that you have
considered the usability requirements from the perspective of all the
different types of users.
It may be necessary to have special consulting sessions with your users and
your client to determine whether there are any special usability
considerations that must be built into the product.
You could also consider consulting a usability laboratory that has experience
with testing the usability of products that have constraints (sections 1-7 of
this template) similar to yours.

11b. Ease of learning.

Content
A statement of how easy it should be to learn to use the product. This will
range from zero time for products intended for placement in the public
domain (for example a parking meter) to a considerable time for complex,
highly technical products. (We know of one product where it was necessary
for graduate engineers to spend 18 months in training before being qualified
to use the product.)
Motivation
To quantify the amount of time that your client feels is allowable before a
user can successfully use the product. This requirement will guide designers
in how users will learn the product. For example, the designers may build
elaborate interactive help facilities into the product, or the product may be
packaged with a tutorial. Alternatively the product may have to be
constructed so that all of its functionality is apparent upon first encountering
it.
Examples
The product shall be easy for an engineer to learn.
A clerk shall be able to be productive within a short time.
The product shall be able to be used by members of the public who will
receive no training before using it. They may have seen the advertising
campaign.

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 The product shall be used by engineers who will attend 5 weeks of training
before using the product.
Fit Criterion
Fit criterion for the above example requirements are:
An engineer shall produce a [specified result] within [specified time] of
beginning to use the product, without needing to use the manual.
After receiving [number of hours] training a clerk shall be able to produce
[quantity of specified outputs] per [unit of time].
[Agreed percentage] of a test panel shall successfully complete [specified
task] within [specified time limit].
The engineers shall achieve [agreed percentage] pass rate from the final
examination of the training.
Considerations
Refer back to Section 3, the Users of the System, to ensure that you have
considered the ease of learning requirements from the perspective of all the
different types of users.

12 Performance Requirements
12a. Speed requirements
Content
Specifies the amount of time available to complete specified tasks. These
often refer to response times. They can also refer to the product’s ability to
fit into the intended environment.
Motivation
Some products, usually real-time products, must be able to perform some of
their functionality within a given time slot. Failure to do so may mean
catastrophic failure (for example a ground-sensing radar in an airplane fails
to detect an upcoming mountain) or the product will not cope with the
required volume of use (an automated ticket selling machine).
Examples
“Any interface between a user and the automated system shall have a
maximum response time of 2 seconds”
“The response shall be fast enough to avoid interrupting the user’s flow of
thought”
“The product shall poll the sensor every 10 seconds”

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 “The product shall download the new status parameters within 5 minutes of
a change”
Fit Criterion
Unit of measurement
Required range of values
Considerations
There is a wide variation in the importance of different types of speed
requirements. If you are working on a missile guidance system then speed is
extremely important. On the other hand, an inventory control report that is
run once every 6 months has very little need for split second speed.
Customise this section of the template to give examples of the speed
requirements that are important within your environment.

12b. Safety critical requirements

Content
Quantification of perceived risk of possible damage to people, property and
environment.
Motivation
To understand and highlight the potential damage that could occur when
using the product within the expected operational environment.
Examples
The product shall not emit noxious gases that damage people’s health.
The heat exchanger shall be shielded from human contact.
Fit Criterion
Description of the perceived risk
Factors that could cause the damage
Unit for measuring the factors that could cause the damage
“The product shall be certified to comply with the Health Department’s
standard E110-98. This is to be certified by qualified testing engineers.”
“No member of a test panel of [specified size] shall be able to touch the heat
exchanger. The heat exchanger must also comply with safety standard
[specify which one].”
Considerations
The sample requirements given above apply to some, but not all, products. It
is not possible to give examples of every variation of safety critical
requirement. To make the template work in your environment, you should
customize it by adding examples that are specific to your products.

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 If you are building safety critical systems then the relevant safety critical
standards are already well specified. You will likely have safety experts on
your staff. These safety experts are the best source of the relevant safety
critical requirements for your type of product. The safety experts will almost
certainly have copious information that you can use.
Consult your legal department. They will be aware of the kinds of lawsuits
that have resulted from product safety failure. This is probably the best
starting place for generating relevant safety requirements.

12c. Precision requirements

Content
Quantification of the desired accuracy of the results produced by the
product.
Motivation
To set the client and user expectations for the precision of the product.
Examples
All monetary amounts shall be accurate to 2 decimal places.
Accuracy of road temperature readings shall be within + or - 2 degrees
centigrade.
Fit Criterion
Unit of measure plus degree of precision
Considerations
If you have done any detailed work on definitions, then some precision
requirements might be adequately defined by definitions in section 5.

12d. Reliability and Availability requirements

Content
This section quantifies the necessary reliability of the product. This is usually
expressed as the allowable time between failures, or the total allowable
failure rate.
It also quantifies the expected availability of the product.
Motivation
It is critical for some products not to fail too often. This section allows you to
explore the possibility of failure and to specify realistic levels of service. It
also gives you the opportunity to set client and user expectations about the
amount of time that the product will be available for use.
Examples
The product shall be available for use 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

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 The product shall be available for use between the hours of 8:00am and
5:30pm.
The escalator shall run from 6am until the last flight arrives at 10pm.
The product shall achieve 99% up time.
Fit Criterion
Time period/s of expected up-time
Considerations
Consider carefully whether the real requirement for your product is that it is
available for use, or that it does not fail at any time.
Consider also the cost of reliability and availability, and whether it is justified
for your product.

12e. Capacity requirements

Content
This section specifies the volumes that the product must be able to deal with
and the numbers of data stored by the product.
Motivation
To ensure that the product is capable of processing the expected volumes.
Examples
The product shall cater for 300 simultaneous users within the period from
9:00am to 11:am. Maximum loading at other periods will be 150.
During a launch period the product shall cater for up to 20 people to be in
the inner chamber.
Fit Criterion
In this case, the requirement description is quantified, and thus can be
tested.

13 Operational Requirements
13a. Expected physical environment
Content
This section specifies the physical environment in which the product will
operate.

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 Motivation
To highlight conditions that might need special requirements, preparations or
training. These requirements ensure that the product is fit to be used in its
intended environment.
Examples
The product shall be used by a worker, standing up, outside in cold, rainy
conditions.
The product shall be used in noisy conditions with a lot of dust.
The product shall be able to fit in a pocket or purse.
The product shall be usable in dim light.
Considerations
The work environment Is the product to operate in some unusual
environment? Does this lead to special requirements? Also see section 11 -
Usability.

13b. Expected technological environment

Content
Specification of the hardware and other devices that make up the operating
environment for the new system.
Motivation
To identify all the components of the new system so that the acquisition,
installation and testing can be effectively managed.
Considerations
Describe the hardware and other devices that make up the operating
environment for the new system. This may not be known at the time of the
requirements process, as these devices may be decided at design time.
It may be that the operating environment is complex, and becomes a subject
of requirements study itself.
Special considerations should also be given if the product is to be embedded
in a device.
If the expected operating environment is the same or similar to the current
one, then this might be adequately covered in section 6d - Implementation
Environment of the Current System.

13c. Partner applications

Content
Description of other applications that the product must interface with.

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 Motivation
Requirements for interfacing to other applications often remain undiscovered
until implementation time. Avoid a high degree of rework by discovering
these requirements early.
Examples
“We must be able to interface with any html browser.”
“The new version of the spreadsheet must be able to access data from the
previous 2 versions”
“Our product must interface with the applications that run on the remote
weather stations”
Fit Criterion
For each inter-application interface specify:
- The data content
- The physical material content
- The medium that carries the interface
- The frequency
- The volume

14 Maintainability and Portability Requirements

14a. How easy must it be to maintain this product?
Content
A quantification of the time necessary to make specified changes to the
product.
Motivation
To make everyone aware of the maintenance needs of the product.
Examples
“New MIS reports must be available within one working week of the date the
requirements are agreed”
“A new weather station must be able to be added to the system overnight”
Considerations
There may be special requirements for maintainability, such as this product
must be able to be maintained by its end-users, or developers who are not
the original developers. This has an effect on the way that the product is

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 developed, and there may be additional requirements for documentation or
training.

14b. Are there special conditions that apply to the maintenance of this product?
Content
Specification of the intended release cycle for the product and the form that
the release will take.
Motivation
To make everyone aware of how often it is intended to produce new releases
of the product.
Examples
“The maintenance releases will be offered to end-users once a year. “
“Every registered user will have access to our help site via the Internet.”
Fit Criterion
Description of type of maintenance + Amount of effort budgeted
Considerations
Do you have any existing contractual commitments or maintenance
agreements that might be affected by the new system?

14c. Portability requirements

Content
Description of other platforms or environments to which the product must be
ported.
Motivation
To quantify client and user expectations about the platforms on which the
product will be able to run.
Examples
“The product is expected to run under Windows 95 and Unix”
“The product might eventually be sold to the Japanese market”
“The product is designed to run in offices, but we intend to have a version
which will run in restaurant kitchens”
Fit Criterion
Specification of system software on which the product must operate.
Specification of future environments in which the product is expected to
operate.
Time allowed to make the transition.

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 Considerations
Ask questions from your marketing department to discover unstated
assumptions that have been made about the portability of the product.

15 Security Requirements
15a. Is the system confidential?
Content
Specification of who has authorized access to the system, and under what
circumstances that access is granted.
Motivation
To understand the expectations for confidentiality aspects of the system.
Examples
“Only direct managers can see the personnel records of their staff.”
“Only holders of current security clearance can enter the building.”
Fit Criterion
System function name or system data name
User role/s and/or names of people who have clearance
Considerations
Is there any data that is sensitive to the management? Is there any data that
low level users do not want management to have access to? Are there any
processes that might cause damage or might be used for personal gain? Are
there any people who should not have access to the system?
Avoid solving how you will design a solution to the security requirements.
For instance, don’t design a password system. Your aim here is to identify
what the security requirement is. The design will come from this description.
Consider asking for help. Computer security is a highly-specialised field, and
one where improperly-qualified people have no business being. If your
product has need of more than average security, we advise that you make
use of a security consultant. They are not cheap, but the results of
inadequate security can be even more expensive.

15b. File integrity requirements

Content
Specification of the required integrity of databases and other files.

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 Motivation
To understand the expectations for the integrity of the system’s data.
Examples
“The clients shall receive updated customer files once every 24 hours.”
“Identical up-to-date booking information shall be available to all users of the
system.”
Considerations
How will the information be used? What is the impact on the customer’s
business if the information is out of date? Will there be a ripple effect if two
different users have different versions of the system?

15c. Audit requirements

Content
Specification of the required audit checks.
Motivation
To build a system that complies with the appropriate audit rules.
Considerations
This section may have legal implications. You are advised to seek the
approval of your organization’s auditors for what you write here.

16 Cultural and Political Requirements

Are there any special factors about the product that would make it unacceptable
for some political reason?
Content
This section contains requirements that are specific to the sociological and
political factors that affect the acceptability of the product. If you are
developing a product for foreign markets then these requirements are
particularly relevant.
Motivation
To bring out in the open requirements that are difficult to discover because
they are outside the cultural experience of the developers.
In the case of political requirements the requirements sometimes appear
irrational.

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 Examples
The product shall be able to distinguish between French, Italian and British
road numbering systems.
The product shall keep a record of public holidays for all countries in the
European Union and for all states in the United States.
Our company policy says that we shall buy our hardware from Unisys.
The chief auditor shall verify all the user interfaces.
Considerations
Question whether the product is intended for a culture other than the one
with which you are familiar. Ask whether people in other countries or in
other types of organizations will use the product. Do these people have
different habits, holidays, superstitions, cultural norms that do not apply to
your own culture?
Did you intend to develop the product on a Macintosh, when the office
manager has laid down a edict that only Windows machines are permitted?
Is a director also on the board of a company that manufactures products
similar to the one that you intend to build?
Whether you agree with these political requirements has little bearing on the
outcome. The reality is that the system has to comply with political
requirements even if you can find a better/more efficient/more economical
solution. A few probing questions here may save some heartache later.

17 Legal Requirements
17a. Does the system fall under the jurisdiction of any law ?
Content
A statement specifying the legal requirements for this system..
Motivation
To comply with the law so as to avoid later delays, law suits and legal fees.
Examples
“Personal information shall be implemented so as to comply with the data
protection act.”
Fit Criterion
Lawyers’ opinion that the product does not break any laws.
Considerations
Consider consulting lawyers to help identify the legal requirements?

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 Are there any copyrights that must be protected? Alternatively, do any
competitors have copyrights that you might be in danger of infringing?
Is it a requirement that developers have not seen competitors’ code or even
have worked for competitors?
Is there any pending legislation that might affect the development of this
system?

17b. Are there any standards with which we must comply ?

Content
A statement specifying applicable standards and referencing detailed
standards descriptions.
Motivation
To comply with standards so as to avoid later delays.
Example
“The product shall comply with MilSpec standards.”
“The product shall comply with insurance industry standards”.
“The product shall be developed according to SSADM standard development
steps.”
Fit Criterion
The appropriate standard-keeper that the standard has been adhered to.
Considerations
It is not always apparent that there are applicable standards because their
existence is often taken for granted. Consider the following:
Are there any industry bodies that have applicable standards?
Has the industry a code of practice, watchdog or ombudsman?
Are there any special development steps for this type of product?

18 Open Issues
Issues that have been raised and do not yet have a conclusion.
Content
A statement of factors that are uncertain and might make significant
difference to the product.

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 Motivation
To bring uncertainty out in the open and provide objective input to risk
analysis.
Examples
“Our investigation into whether or not the new version of the processor will
be suitable for our application is not yet complete.”
“The government are planning to change the rules about who is responsible
for gritting the motor ways, but we do not know what the changes might be.”
Considerations
Are there any issues that have come up from the requirements gathering that
have not yet been resolved? Have you heard of any changes that might occur
in the other organisations/systems on your context diagram? Are there any
legislative changes that might affect your system? Any rumours about your
hardware/software suppliers that might have an impact?

19 Off-the-Shelf Solutions
19a. Is there a ready-made system that could be bought?
Content
List of existing products that should be investigated as potential solutions.
Reference any surveys that have been done on these products.
Motivation
To give consideration to whether or not a solution can be bought.
Considerations
Is it possible to buy something that already exists or is about to become
available? It may not be possible at this stage to say with a lot of confidence,
but any likely products should be listed here.
Also consider whether there are products that must not be used.

19b. Can ready-made components be used for this product?

Content
Description of the candidate components, either bought-in or built by your
company, that could be used by this project. List libraries that could be a
source of components.
Motivation
Reuse rather than reinvention.

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 19.3 Is there something that we could copy?
Content
List of other similar systems.
Motivation
Reuse rather than reinvention.
Examples
“Another electricity company has built a customer service system. Their
hardware is different from ours but we could buy their specification and cut
our analysis effort by approximately 60%.”
Considerations
While a ready-made solution may not exist, there may well be something
that, in its essence, is similar enough that you could copy, and possibly
modify, to better effect that starting from scratch. This is dangerous because
it relies on the base system being of good quality.
This question should always be answered. The act of answering will force you
to look at other existing solutions to similar problems.

20 New Problems
20a. What problems could the new system cause in the current environment?
Content
A description of how the new system will affect the current implementation
environment. This section should also cover things that the new product
should not do.
Motivation
The intention is to discover early any potential conflicts that might otherwise
not be realised until implementation time.
Examples
Any change to the scheduling system will affect the work of the engineers in
the divisions and the gritter truck drivers.
Considerations
Is it possible that the new system will damage some already existing system?
Can people be displaced, or affected by the new system?
This requires a study of the current environment. A model highlighting the
effects of the change is a good way to make this information widely
understandable.

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 20b. Will the new development affect any of the installed system?
Content
Specification of the interfaces between new and existing systems.
Motivation
Very rarely is a new development intended to stand completely alone.
Usually there is some existing system that the new one must coexist with.
This question forces you to look carefully at the existing system and examine
it for potential conflicts with the new development.

20c. Will any of our existing users be adversely affected by the new
development?
Content
Details of any adverse reaction that might be suffered by existing users
Motivation
Sometimes existing users are using a product in such a way that they will
suffer ill effects from the new system/feature. Identify any likely adverse
user reaction, determine whether we care and what precautions we will take.

20d. What limitations exist in the anticipated implementation environment that

may inhibit the new system?
Content
Statement of any potential problems with the new automated technology or
new ways of structuring the organisation.
Motivation
The intention is to make early discovery of any potential conflicts that might
otherwise not be realised until implementation time.
Examples
The planned new server is not powerful enough to cope with our projected
growth pattern.
Considerations
This requires a study of the intended implementation environment.

20e. Will the new system create other problems?

Content
Identification of situations that we might not be able to cope with.
Motivation
To guard against situations where the product might fail.

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 Considerations
Will we create a demand for our product that we are not able to service? Will
the new system cause us to fall foul of laws that do not currently apply? Will
the existing hardware cope?
There are potentially hundreds of unwanted effects. It pays to answer this
question very carefully.

21 Tasks
21a. What steps have to be taken to deliver the system?
Content
Details of the life cycle and approach that will be used to deliver the product.
A high level process diagram showing the tasks and interfaces between them
is a good way to communicate this information.
Motivation
To specify the approach that will be taken to deliver the product so that
everyone has the same expectations.
Considerations
Depending on the level of maturity of your process, the new product will be
developed using your standard approach. However, there are some
circumstances that are special to a particular product and will necessitate
changes to your lifecycle. While these are not a product requirement, they
are needed if the product is to be successfully developed.
If possible, attach an estimate of the time and resources need for each task
based on the requirements that you have specified. Tag your estimates to the
events/use cases/functions that you specified in sections 8 and 9.
Do not forget data conversion, user training and cutover. We have listed
these because they are usually ignored when projects set implementation
dates.

21b. Development phases

Content
Specification of each phase of development and the components in the
operating environment.
Motivation
To identify the phases necessary to implement the operating environment for
the new system so that the implementation can be managed.

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 Fit Criterion
Name of the phase
Required operational date
Operating environment components included
Functional requirements included
Non-functional requirements included
Considerations
Identify which hardware and other devices are necessary for each phase of
the new system. This may not be known at the time of the requirements
process, as these devices may be decided at design time.

22 Cutover
22a. What special requirements do we have to get the existing data, and
procedures to work for the new system?
Content
A list of the Cutover activities. Timetable for implementation.
Motivation
To identify cutover tasks as input to the project planning process.
Considerations
Will you be using phased implementation to install the new system? If so,
describe the requirements that will be implemented by each of the major
phases.
What data conversion has to be done? Are there special programs to be
written to transport data from an existing system to the new one? If so, the
requirements for this program(s) are to be described here.
What manual backup is needed while the new system is installed?
When are each of the major components to be put in place, when are phases
of the implementation to be released?
This section is the timetable for implementation of the new system.

22b. What data has to be modified/translated for the new system?

Content
List of data translation tasks.

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 Motivation
To discover missing tasks that will affect the size and boundaries of the
project.
Fit Criterion
Description of the current technology that holds the data
Description of the new technology that will hold the data
Description of the data translation task/s
Foreseeable problems
Considerations
Every time you make an addition to your dictionary (see section 4) ask the
question “What are all the places that this data is currently held and will the
new system affect that implementation?”.

23 Risks
All projects involve risk. By this we mean the risk that something will go
wrong. Risk is not necessarily a bad thing, as no progress is made without
taking some risk. However, there is a difference between unmanaged risk –
say shooting dice at a craps table – and managed risk where the probabilities
are well understood, and contingencies made. Risk is only a bad thing if the
risks are ignored and they become problems. Risk management is assessing
which risks are most likely to apply to the project, deciding a course of
action if they become problems, and monitoring projects to give early
warnings of risks becoming problems.
This section of your specification should contain a list of the most
likely and the most serious risks for your project. Against each risk include
the probability of that risk becoming a problem. Capers Jones’ book
Assessment and Control of Software Risks. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ. 1994 gives comprehensive lists of risks and their probabilities, you can
use these as a starting point. For example, Jones cites the following risks as
being the most serious:
• Inaccurate metrics
• Inadequate measurement
• Excessive schedule pressure
• Management malpractice
• Inaccurate cost estimating
• Silver bullet syndrome
• Creeping user requirements
• Low quality
• Low productivity
• Cancelled projects

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 It is also useful input to project management if you include the impact
on the schedule, or the cost, if the risk does become a problem.

24 Costs
The other cost of requirements is the amount of money or effort that you
have to spend building them into a product. Once the requirements
specification is complete, you can use one of the estimating methods to
assess the cost, and express this in a monetary amount or time to build.
There is no best method to use when estimating. However your
estimates should be based on some tangible, countable, artifact. If you are
using this template then, as a result of doing the work of requirements
specification, you are producing many measurable deliverables. For
example:
Number of input and output flows on the work context
Number of business events
Number of product use cases
Number of functional requirements
Number of non-functional requirements
Number of requirements constraints
Number of function points
The more detailed work you do on your requirements the more accurate will
be your deliverables. Your cost estimate is the amount of resources you
estimate each type of deliverable will take to produce within your
environment. You can do some very early cost estimates based on the work
context. At that stage, your knowledge of the work will be general and you
should reflect this by making the cost estimate a range rather than one figure.
As you get more knowledge about the requirements we suggest you try
using function point counting – not because it is an inherently superior
method - but because it is so commonly accepted. So much is known about
it, that it is possible to make easy comparisons with other products, and other
installations’ productivity.
It is important that your client knows at this stage what the product is
likely to cost. You usually express this as a total cost to complete the
product, but you may also find it advantageous to be able to point out the
cost of individual requirements.
Whatever you do, do not leave the costs in the lap of hysterical
optimism. Make sure that this section includes meaningful numbers based on
tangible deliverables.

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25 User Documentation and Training
25a. The plan for building the user documentation.
Content
List of the user documentation that will be supplied as part of the system
and to describe the training that will be available.
Motivation
To set expectations for the documentation and training and to identify who
will be responsible for creating it.
Considerations
What level of documentation is expected? Will the users be involved in the
production of the documentation? Who will be responsible for keeping the
documentation up to date? What form will the documentation take? What
training will be necessary? Who will design the training? Who will provide
the training?

26 Waiting Room
Requirements that will not be part of the agreed product. These requirements
might be included in future versions of the product.
Content
Any type of requirement.
Motivation
To allow requirements to be gathered, even though they cannot be part of
the current development. To ensure that good ideas are not lost.
Considerations
The requirements gathering process often throws up requirements that are
beyond the sophistication of, or time allowed for, the current release of the
product. This section is a hold-all for requirements in waiting. The intention
is to avoid stifling your users and clients by having a repository of future
requirements. You are also managing expectations by making it clear that
you take these requirements seriously but they will not be part of the agreed
product.

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27 Ideas for Solutions
When you are gathering requirements you are focusing on finding out what the
real requirements are, you are trying to avoid coming up with solutions.
However when creative people start to think about a problem they always
have ideas. This section of the template is a place to put those ideas so that
you do not forget them and so that you can separate them from the real
business requirements.
Content
Any idea for a solution that you think is worth keeping for future
consideration. This can take the form of rough notes, sketches, pointers to
other documents, pointers to people, pointers to existing products….the aim
is to capture, with the least amount of effort, an idea that you can come back
to later.
Motivation
To make sure that good ideas are not lost and to help you separate
requirements and solutions.
Considerations
Whilst you are gathering requirements you will have solution ideas, this is a
way of capturing them. Bear in mind that this section will not necessarily be
published as part of the specification that you publish.

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