Software Evaluation Checklist

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Software
Evaluation
Checklist:
What Are
The
Requirements
For
Evaluating IT
Project
Sofiia V.
2021-05-07
When customers make requests for software development to the Geniusee team,
some questions from the IT team are disheartening to them.
In this post:
1. Why is it important to clearly define project requirements?
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2. Key problems in the requirements determination process
3. The checklist for developing project requirements.
4. Our Experience
5. Instead of a conclusion
In the production of custom IT solutions, we appoint a

manager who monitors the work and interacts with the
customer, we form a team and we deploy the project
environment.
The software product development process involves several

phases. Each phase consists of three blocks: requirements
specification, implementation of the solution, transfer of the
project to the customer. Let's talk more about the stage of
requirements specification.
Clarification of the requirements will help to clearly identify

the needs of the customer, determine the resources and team,
assess the value of the IT project. Based on the requirements,
the development team agrees with the customer on the
phases and timing of the solution and determines the
methodology for acceptance testing of the software product.
It is worth mentioning that our approach does not claim to be

unique. Its value is in the fact that we have collected and
analyzed aspects of various quality assessment
methodologies, tested them in our work on custom projects
The websiteand
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compiled a IT product evaluation checklist of
GOT IT
requirements sufficient for an adequate and accurate
assessment.
Why Is It Important To
Clearly Define Project
Requirements?
Determining software requirements in IT projects is a very
important task in the initial phase of project development.
Properly defined requirements are a guarantee that the
system will meet the requirements of those interested in its
development, the so-called stakeholders. For large systems,
the number of requirements can be quite significant and the
requirements can change, in addition, they are often related.
Moreover, there is always the possibility that some of the
requirements of stakeholders will not be implemented or
incorrectly implemented. That’s why we create our own
checklist of requirements for IT products.
The main problem with requirements definition is that it is

very difficult to identify the final requirements before the
implementation of the software product, as the process of
requirements identification is often informal.
In addition, requirements are collected from different sources,

which also makes it difficult to interpret them unambiguously
and track changes.
Main Difficulties In Defining IT

Project Requirements
• When determining software requirements, it is
necessary to take into account the wishes of a large
number of stakeholders, which is typical for such
projects;
• A variety of requirements of different types. Each type
of requirement
Estimator Servicesshould be described
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Career About Contact us
degree of detail;
• Requirements can be complex hierarchical structures
that need to be maintained;
• Requirements of various types can be related to each
other, therefore, it is necessary to track the traceability
of requirements, that is, to establish, change and remove
the relationship between them.
These reasons lead to the fact that the requirements change

in the course of the project, which, in our opinion, is primarily
due to the insufficient degree of their definition at the
beginning of the design. Our IT project assessment checklist
will make it easier for you to collect customer requirements.
Key Problems In The

Requirements
Determination Process
Organization Of Collection, Analysis
And Evaluation Of Ideas To Collect
Requirements.
Solving these problems affects the entire project development

process, affecting information, communications, and tools.
The main problem in this case is the coordination of personnel
actions, the organization of cooperation. Many modern
companies use a global software supply chain, which includes
both various divisions within the company and divisions that
are geographically and temporally separated, which greatly
complicates their coordination;
Scalability Of Practical Skills.

The informal methods of identifying requirements, which
employeesEstimator
often choose
Services when working
Industries on small
Portfolio Blog projects,
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to be disappointing when working on larger projects. In

addition, projects in which the majority of employees work
remotely are very different from projects carried out by a
team with a compact arrangement of employees;
The Required Degree Of

Documentation And The Need For
Tools May Vary Depending On The
Size Of The Project.
Many companies use Word text documents, PowerPoint

presentations, Visio diagrams, and Excel spreadsheets as a
tooling environment for identifying requirements. The latter
can be used to track requirements and where they arise. Such
a toolkit can be used in small projects. When performing large
or multiple projects, such tools are ineffective;
Integration Of Information When

Using Such Tools Word, PowerPoint,
Visio, Excel Is Limited.
These tools can support embedding and updating of certain

information, but they have limited capabilities when working
with relational data. The ability to track intermediate results is
lost, making it difficult to reuse previously obtained results;
The Need To Support Work With

Requirements Online.
Word tools, PowerPoint Visio, Excel do not support

interactive work. When using these tools, you can create
repositories for requirements artifacts, use discussion forums,
or use email to resolve issues. This still creates scattered
information that still needs to be collected and cataloged to
get context.
The Checklist For

Developing Project
Requirements.
Our software project evaluation checklist consists of several
blocks. Let's take a look at each of them.
1. Functional Requirements For

“Successful” Scenarios.
Functional requirements are a list of services that the system

must perform, and it should be indicated how the system
reacts to certain input data, how it behaves in certain
situations, etc. In some cases, it is indicated what the system
should not do.
The websiteStandard forms for

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• A description of a function or object.
• Description
Estimator of the input
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• Description of the output with an indication of their

destination.
• An indication of what is needed to execute the function.
• If this is a function specification, a description of the
preconditions that must be met before the function is
called, and a description of the final condition
(postconditions) that must be met after the completion
of the function is required.
• Description of side effects (if any).
In this part of the software evaluation checklist template we

define the software functionality that developers must build
to enable users to accomplish their tasks within the business
requirements. Sometimes called behavioral requirements,
they contain clauses with the traditional "should" : "The
system should send an order confirmation to the user by
email."
At this point, we figure out what the system should do. Our
developers always have questions for customers about
functional requirements.
For example, a client describes the expected result: "The user

logs into their personal account, selects this and that, and then
goes there." Stop! Where will the personal account come
from? How do users register? How to change and recover
passwords? Do I need to import / connect an existing user
base? Finding out “missed”, implicit requirements is the team’s
task.
2. Functional Requirements For

“Emergency” Scenarios.
When we buy a car, we think about how it will carry us to

various interesting places, and not about how we will have to
refuel it.
Typically, the customer presents more or less clearly how the

solution will work in positive scenarios.
In our experience, a significant part of the work is spent on

processing errors related to external factors: unstable
communication, incorrect operation of third-party services,
insufficient storage for backups and so on.
3. Non-Functional Requirements
In this part of the software assessment checklist we will

describe the characteristics of the system and its
environment, not the behavior of the system. It can also
provide a list of restrictions imposed on the actions and
functions performed by the system. These include time
constraints on the system development process, standards,
etc.
Non-functional requirements are not directly related to the
The websitefunctions performed

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to improve They are related
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integration properties of the system such as reliability,

response time, or system size. In addition, non-functional
requirements
EstimatorcanServices
impose restrictions
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/ O bandwidth, or the data formats used in the system

interface.
Non-functional requirements are based on budget

constraints, take into account the organizational capabilities
of the developer company, the ability of the developed system
to interact with other software and computing systems, as
well as external factors such as safety regulations, legislation
on the protection of intellectual property, etc.
1. Performance and power
It is advisable to clarify the figures: the number of users, the

response rate for a given amount of data and the load on the
system, the amount of stored data, resource consumption of
the system during normal operation.
Sometimes the client seeks to minimize labor costs at the

expense of everything, including asking for a minimum
performance. The project makes it to the prototype stage, and
the real load of the production level is getting off scale.
In our practice, there was a case when a client ordered a demo

prototype with the possibility of quick deployment on their
own laptop, and then launched a dozen users into it without
consulting with us. The prototype could not provide the
simultaneous operation of so many users.
At the very start, it is important to explain to the customer

that you cannot take passengers on a paper plane.
2. Sustainability
We find out MTBF expectations (mean time between failures)

at normal, critical and supercritical load. Based on this, you
can select the most suitable technological stack and
determine whether it is necessary to supplement the solution
with such a "side" functionality as advanced monitoring, self-
healing, auto-scaling.
The analysis is carried out in parallel with points a, c, e, f, g.
3. Reliability and recoverability
Here we take into account the time to restore the system

after a fall, the complete destruction of the entire data center
and operational data. We discuss the requirements for data
backup and system backup.
4. Security
Do not forget to identify the roles of user groups, the scheme

of differentiation of access rights, the requirements for
encryption of data and communication channels. This item is
especially important for projects with personal data that are
stored in the clouds.
What should you do if your client works with ‘sensitive’
personal data
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decides to transferPortfolio
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servers to the cloud? At one of the projects, we did the

following - we collected backups from the entire network,
encrypted them and put them into cloud storages so that no
one who had access to one storage could decrypt anything.
5. Scalability
We always discuss the possibilities of scaling and

requirements for it, then we specify the time and cost of
deploying additional capacities.
6. Extensibility
Scalability and extensibility have two sides to the coin. We can

do a project quickly and inexpensively, but with restrictions on
the amount of data, speed, power and other indicators. The
customer instantly enters the market, receives feedback, pays
less for infrastructure. Another option for the development of
events when we are working for the future, but there is a risk
that the product will not take off soon and the cost will be
higher. Competitors are on the alert. They can do everything
quickly and cheaply, but without scalability and extensibility.
Who will the customer ultimately choose as a subcontractor?
Someone Estimator
who is able
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able to meet the needs of the customer, taking into account

restrictions, including financial ones.
It may happen that the customer requests a super-universal

solution. The data model / architecture / deployment scheme
will turn out to be very expensive for development (without a
visible return on the investment horizon). It will require too
much time for implementation and high costs for maintenance
and infrastructure. That is why it is important to maintain a
balance at the start.
7. Serviceability
One of our customers from Britain began to work with clients

from their time zone. For a long time, the system could be
relatively painlessly stopped for maintenance at night. Then
they got users in Australia and Germany. The window of
opportunity shrank sharply. And when China connected to
their project, it finally shut.
It is important to consider the features of the system: some

require availability 99.999% of the time, and you can’t stop
them for more than 8+ hours a year.
Find out who will install, maintain, and upgrade the product. If
these are Estimator
admins on the part
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important
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clarify their qualifications and provide for the appropriate

level of complexity for monitoring, diagnosing and updating
the system. This requirement is related to documentation,
which will be discussed below.
8. Ergonomics
We find out the requirements for usability, accessibility, take

into account the time it takes for the average user to master
the system, the simplicity of typical scripts, and the built-in
documentation. If ergonomics is not worked out on the client
side, then UX experts do this.
9. Graphic design
At the start of the project evaluation, we find out whether the

customer provides a ready-made design or gives it to our team
for development.
10. Documentation
If the client’s employees are involved in the installation and

configuration of the solution, documented instructions will
obviously be required. It is important to consider the level of
qualification of operational personnel. The detail of such an
instruction will depend
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11. Licensed cleanliness
What to do if the customer wants to use a framework for

which he does not have a license? Then you could either buy
licenses or start looking for alternatives.
Once we were approached by a company in whose brand book

there were paid fonts that the client did not buy. We had to
explain the legal consequences. As a result, changes to the
brand book were made.
12. Compliance with standards and legislation
What can not be ignored in evaluating an IT project? Federal

Law on personal data, compulsory licensing of certain types of
activities, fiscal accounting, server location and data storage in
certain jurisdictions. The most sensitive projects in this regard
are related to the storage and security of personal data.
Subject Area Requirements
Subject area requirements characterize the subject area

where the system will be used. These requirements may be
functional or non-functional. These requirements reflect the
conditions in which the software system will be operated.
They can be presented in the form of new functional
requirements or in the form of constraints on already
formulated functional requirements or in the form of
instructions on how the system should perform calculations.
Failure to meet the requirements of the subject area can lead
to system failure.
Product Requirements
Product requirements describe the performance properties of

a software product. These are the requirements for system
performance, the amount of required memory, reliability
(determines the frequency of possible failures in the system),
portability of the system to different computer platforms and
ease of use.
Organizational Requirements
This block of software product evaluation template reflect the
policies and organizational
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the software developer. These include software product

development standards, software implementation
requirements (i.e., programming language and design
methods), output requirements that determine the timing of
software product manufacturing, and related documentation.
Integration Requirements
Integration requirements describe a low-level interface for

the interaction of a new system with several other systems in
the company. The purpose of this document is to justify and
formalize the choice of the integration method. The document
contains a description of methods and methods of integration
with external systems and services.
Application integration is a technological process used to

organize the exchange of data between various information
systems using the integration tools provided by applications.
Integration tools provided by applications include API
functions, processing packages, and data export / import.
User Interface Requirements
The user interface is part of the software system. User

interface requirements can be broken down into two groups:
• Requirements for the appearance of the user interface
and forms of interaction with the user
• Requirements for accessing the internal functionality of
the system using the user interface
The first group includes the following types of requirements:

• Requirements for placing controls on screen forms
• Requirements for the content and design of displayed
messages
• Requirements for input formats

The second group includes the following types of
requirements:
• Requirements for the response of the system to user

input
• Requirements for response time to user commands
Our Experience
Often, at the initial stages of work, stakeholders have only a
general concept of how the final product should look and
work. We use special information gathering techniques to turn
vague ideas into clear assignments.
There is no single technique that can collect absolutely all the

requirements for a product. For each stage of detailing needs,
one specific technique or a combination of several is suitable.
At the stage of general business requirements, a one-on-one

interview with a customer works well. The requirements of a
group of stakeholders are easier to clarify in a group
discussion during a brainstorming session. A specially
organized working meeting - workshop helps to think over
detailed new solutions for the system. In our team, we
combine these methods to more fully receive the
requirements from the customer.
Instead Of A Conclusion
Our it evaluation checklist can be used in whole or in part,
depending on the specific request of a potential customer. The
most accurate understanding of what the customer wants to
create allows to reduce the uncertainty in the project and
increase the accuracy of the assessment. The efforts spent on
eliminating uncertainty on the part of the client may indirectly
demonstrate their readiness for further cooperation. Hope
you like our software evaluation checklist example and it will
become useful
Estimator to you
Services in the future.
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Development Tools Management
Sofiia V.
2021-05-07
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Estimator Services Industries Portfolio Blog Career About Contact us

Development Tools Management

In the production of custom IT solutions, we appoint a

The software product development process involves several

Clarification of the requirements will help to clearly identify

It is worth mentioning that our approach does not claim to be

The main problem with requirements definition is that it is

In addition, requirements are collected from different sources,

Main Difficulties In Defining IT

These reasons lead to the fact that the requirements change

Key Problems In The

Solving these problems affects the entire project development

Scalability Of Practical Skills.

to be disappointing when working on larger projects. In

The Required Degree Of

Many companies use Word text documents, PowerPoint

Integration Of Information When

These tools can support embedding and updating of certain

The Need To Support Work With

Word tools, PowerPoint Visio, Excel do not support

The Checklist For

1. Functional Requirements For

Functional requirements are a list of services that the system

The websiteStandard forms for

• Description of the output with an indication of their

In this part of the software evaluation checklist template we

For example, a client describes the expected result: "The user

2. Functional Requirements For

When we buy a car, we think about how it will carry us to

Typically, the customer presents more or less clearly how the

In our experience, a significant part of the work is spent on

In this part of the software assessment checklist we will

Non-functional requirements are not directly related to the

The websitefunctions performed

integration properties of the system such as reliability,

/ O bandwidth, or the data formats used in the system

Non-functional requirements are based on budget

1. Performance and power

It is advisable to clarify the figures: the number of users, the

Sometimes the client seeks to minimize labor costs at the

In our practice, there was a case when a client ordered a demo

At the very start, it is important to explain to the customer

We find out MTBF expectations (mean time between failures)

The analysis is carried out in parallel with points a, c, e, f, g.

3. Reliability and recoverability

Here we take into account the time to restore the system

Do not forget to identify the roles of user groups, the scheme

servers to the cloud? At one of the projects, we did the

We always discuss the possibilities of scaling and

Scalability and extensibility have two sides to the coin. We can

able to meet the needs of the customer, taking into account

It may happen that the customer requests a super-universal

One of our customers from Britain began to work with clients

It is important to consider the features of the system: some

clarify their qualifications and provide for the appropriate

We find out the requirements for usability, accessibility, take

At the start of the project evaluation, we find out whether the

If the client’s employees are involved in the installation and

11. Licensed cleanliness

What to do if the customer wants to use a framework for

Once we were approached by a company in whose brand book

12. Compliance with standards and legislation

What can not be ignored in evaluating an IT project? Federal

Subject Area Requirements