LECTURE 3

REQUIREMENT DILEMMA

• Significant Difference in – Asking & Accepting

• Often huge difference – stated & real requirement

 Stated Requirement
 Those provided by a customer at the beginning of software development effort
 Example:
 in a request for information, proposal or quote
 In statement of work - SOW
 Real Requirement
 Those that reflect the verified needs of user for a particular system
 Identification is interactive and Iterative requirement process
REQUIREMENT CLASSIFICATION
Requirements are commonly classified as (IEEE std 830, 1998): (Need to be discussed in next
class)
 Functional:
 A requirement that specifies an action that a system MUST be able to perform, without
considering physical constraints
 A requirement that specifies input/output behavior of the system
 Non-Functional:
 A requirement that specifies system PROPERTIES, such as environmental and
implementation constraints, performance, dependencies, maintainability, extensibility and
reliability.
 Often classified as:
 Performance Requirements
 External interface requirements
 Design constraints
 Quality attributes
 EXAMPLES OF REQUIREMENTS
The system shall maintain records of all library materials including books,
serials, newspapers and magazines, video and audio tapes, reports,
collections of transparencies, computer disks and CD-ROMs.
 Very general requirements
The system shall allow users to search for an item by title, author, or by ISBN.
 Functional requirements
The system’s user interface shall be implemented using a World-Wide-Web
browser.
 Implementation requirements
The system shall support at least 20 transactions per second.
 Performance requirements
The system facilities which are available to public users shall be demonstrable
in 10 minutes or less.
 Usability requirements
The system will operate in 32-bit operating system.
 System requirements
 5

MORE REQUIREMENTS EXAMPLES

Issue ticket to vehicle user when he requests.

I. Issue Ticket .
Log on to the library system by entering your
II. Log on to library system. username and password on login screen.

III. Check ticket. Who is checking ticket.?? Guard or software or by

what method this checking is done?? And at what
time this checking is done..? before leaving or
IV. Match the vehicle number. what?

V. Update library record after new entry. Tickets are checked by the parking guard before
the vehicle leaves the parking. Ticket holder and
vehicle number is validated by matching the id card
VI. Entrance of vehicle and record its number in the list. number and vehicle registration number.

VII. Search catalog . When we are checking the vehicle number ? Either
before entering the parking or at time of leaving the
VIII. Id of student is matched & book is issued to student. parking..? or this process is being followed at both
times? Specify that ..

IX. Issue book and update record . You are merging two requirements either state them
separately or identify them by using sub
X. Log out from the system. heading/sub bullets. Like;

Req-1. Allow entrance to vehicles which have

verified tickets by opening the parking gate.

Req1.1. record the number of entered vehicles in

Search on what basis..???? the database/record.
 EXERCISE
Requirements
The output of the program shall
usually be given within 10
seconds
When performing calculations the
software shall produce
correct results.
The system shall purge state control
records and files that are older than
the retention period
When primary is lost, secondary
unit takes over
Identified Problem
The requirement contains a general word “usually”. Is there any condition
in which this requirement should not be the case? The requirement is also
incomplete: the output of the program is not specified. Also, when do you
start counting the 10 seconds? the Requirement cannot be implemented or
tested as stated.
This requirement is not necessary. This type of requirement is inherent to
correctness should not need to be specified, unless it refers to a specific
(complex) calculation and what is considered as correct.
The requirement is incomplete and vague without specifying
the retention period or providing reference as to where the
information can be obtained. The requirement cannot be
implemented or tested as stated.
Is this a “must” or is this “optional”? Use words like “must”
(or shall”) consistently.
SELF STUDY
 FAQS (QUESTIONS)
What happens when the requirements are wrong?
 Systems are late, unreliable and don’t meet customers needs
Is there an ideal requirements engineering process?
 No - processes must be tailored to organizational needs
What is a requirements document?
 The formal statement of the system requirements
What are system stakeholders?
 Anyone affected in some way by the system