Levels of Software Requirements
Software requirements are defined at various levels of detail and granularity. Requirements at different level of detail also mean to serve different purposes. We first look at these different levels and then will try to elaborate the difference between these with the help of different examples.
While writing these requirements, it must always be kept in mind that all functional requirements must derive from user requirements, which must themselves be aligned with business requirements. It must also be remembered that during the requirement engineering process we are in the definition phase of the software development where the focus is on what and not how. Therefore, requirements must not include design or implementation details and the focus should always remain on what to build and not how to build.
Let us now look at an example to understand the difference between these different types of requirements.
Let us assume that we have a word-processing system that does not have a spell checker. In order to be able to sell the product, it is determined that it must have a spell checker. Hence the business requirement could be stated as: user will be able to correct spelling errors in a document efficiently. Hence, the Spell checker will be included as a feature in the product.
In the next step we need to describe what tasks must be included to accomplish the above-mentioned business requirement. The resulting user requirement could be as follows: finding spelling errors in the document and decide whether to replace each misspelled word with the one chosen from a list of suggested words. It is important to note that this requirement is written from a user’s perspective.
After documenting the user’s perspective in the form of user requirements, the system’spers pective: what is the functionality provided by the system and how will it help the user to accomplish these tasks. Viewed from this angle, the functional requirement for the same user requirement could be written as follows: the spell checker will find and highlight misspelled words. It will then display a dialog box with suggested replacements. The user will be allowed to select from the list of suggested replacements. Upon selection it will replace the misspelled word with the selected word. It will also allow the user to make global replacements.
Finally, a non-functional requirement of the system could require that it must be integrated into the existing word-processor that runs on windows platform.
Stakeholders
As mentioned earlier, in order to develop a good requirement document, it is imperative to involve all kinds of user in the requirement engineering process. The first step in fulfillment of this need is the identification of all the stakeholders in the system. Stakeholders are different people who would be interested in the software. It is important to recognize that management carries a lot of weight, but they usually are not the actual users of the system. We need to understand that it is the actual user who will eventually use the system and hence accept or reject the product. Therefore, ignoring the needs of any user class may result in the system failure.
A requirement engineer should be cognizant of the fact that stakeholders have a tendency to state requirements in very general and vague terms. Some times they trivialize things. Different stakeholders have different requirements – sometimes even conflicting. On top of that internal politics may influence requirements.
The role of stakeholders cannot be overemphasized. A study of over 8300 projects revealed that the top two reasons for any project failure are lack of user input and incomplete requirements.
The following diagram shows the role of different stakeholders in the setting the system requirements.
In the next post we will discuss Requirement Statement and Requirement Specification.
Software requirements are defined at various levels of detail and granularity. Requirements at different level of detail also mean to serve different purposes. We first look at these different levels and then will try to elaborate the difference between these with the help of different examples.
- Business Requirements:
These are used to state the high-level business objective of the organization or customer requesting the system or product. They are used to document main system features and functionalities without going into their nitty-gritty details. They are captured in a document describing the project vision and scope. - User Requirements:
User requirements add further detail to the business requirements. They are called user requirements because they are written from a user’s perspective and the focus of user requirement describe tasks the user must be able to accomplish in order to fulfill the above stated business requirements. They are captured in the requirement definition document. - Functional Requirements:
The next level of detail comes in the form of what is called functional requirements. They bring-in the system’s view and define from the system’s perspective the software functionality the developers must build into the product to enable users to accomplish their tasks stated in the user requirements - hereby satisfying the business requirements. - Non-Functional Requirements
In the last section we defined a software requirement as a document that describes all the services provided by the system along with the constraints under which it must operate. That is, the requirement document should not only describe the functionality needed and provided by the system, but it must also specify the constraints under which it must operate. Constraints are restrictions that are placed on the choices available to the developer for design and construction of the software product. These kinds of requirements are called Non-Functional Requirements. These are used to describe external system interfaces, design and implementation constraints, quality and performance attributes. These also include regulations, standards, and contracts to which the product must conform.
While writing these requirements, it must always be kept in mind that all functional requirements must derive from user requirements, which must themselves be aligned with business requirements. It must also be remembered that during the requirement engineering process we are in the definition phase of the software development where the focus is on what and not how. Therefore, requirements must not include design or implementation details and the focus should always remain on what to build and not how to build.
Let us now look at an example to understand the difference between these different types of requirements.
Let us assume that we have a word-processing system that does not have a spell checker. In order to be able to sell the product, it is determined that it must have a spell checker. Hence the business requirement could be stated as: user will be able to correct spelling errors in a document efficiently. Hence, the Spell checker will be included as a feature in the product.
In the next step we need to describe what tasks must be included to accomplish the above-mentioned business requirement. The resulting user requirement could be as follows: finding spelling errors in the document and decide whether to replace each misspelled word with the one chosen from a list of suggested words. It is important to note that this requirement is written from a user’s perspective.
After documenting the user’s perspective in the form of user requirements, the system’spers pective: what is the functionality provided by the system and how will it help the user to accomplish these tasks. Viewed from this angle, the functional requirement for the same user requirement could be written as follows: the spell checker will find and highlight misspelled words. It will then display a dialog box with suggested replacements. The user will be allowed to select from the list of suggested replacements. Upon selection it will replace the misspelled word with the selected word. It will also allow the user to make global replacements.
Finally, a non-functional requirement of the system could require that it must be integrated into the existing word-processor that runs on windows platform.
Stakeholders
As mentioned earlier, in order to develop a good requirement document, it is imperative to involve all kinds of user in the requirement engineering process. The first step in fulfillment of this need is the identification of all the stakeholders in the system. Stakeholders are different people who would be interested in the software. It is important to recognize that management carries a lot of weight, but they usually are not the actual users of the system. We need to understand that it is the actual user who will eventually use the system and hence accept or reject the product. Therefore, ignoring the needs of any user class may result in the system failure.
A requirement engineer should be cognizant of the fact that stakeholders have a tendency to state requirements in very general and vague terms. Some times they trivialize things. Different stakeholders have different requirements – sometimes even conflicting. On top of that internal politics may influence requirements.
The role of stakeholders cannot be overemphasized. A study of over 8300 projects revealed that the top two reasons for any project failure are lack of user input and incomplete requirements.
The following diagram shows the role of different stakeholders in the setting the system requirements.
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| Levels of Software Requirements - Click to Enlarge |
In the next post we will discuss Requirement Statement and Requirement Specification.
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