Software Requirements and Its Types

Software Requirements

Engineering

1
Introduction

• Requirements form the basis for all

software products
• Requirements engineering is the

process, which enables us to
systematically determine the
requirements for a software product
2
Software Requirements
Lecture # 1
3
Requirement
• Something required, something wanted

or needed
– Webster’s dictionary
• There is a huge difference between
wanted and needed and it should be
kept in mind all the time
4
Ripple
effect
Why do we need
RE?
Software Requirements - 1
• A complete description of what the

software system will do without
describing how it will do it is
represented by the software
requirements
7
• Software requirements are complete

specification of the desired external
behavior of the software system to be
built
• They also represent External behavior

of the system
8
• Software requirements may be:

– Abstract statements of services and/or
constraints
– Detailed mathematical functions
9
• Software requirements may be:

– Part of the bid of contract
– The contract itself
– Part of the technical document, which
describes a product
10
IEEE Definition
• A condition or capability that must be

met or possessed by a system...to
satisfy a contract, standard,
specification, or other formally
imposed document
– IEEE Std 729
11
Sources of Requirements
• Stakeholders
– People affected in some way by
the system
• Documents
• Existing system
• Domain/business area
12
Levels of Software
Requirements
• Stakeholders describe requirements at
different levels of detail
– “What versus How”
– “One person’s floor is another person’s
ceiling”
13
Importance of
Software
Requirements
• The hardest single part of building a
software system is deciding what to
build...No other part of the work so
cripples the resulting system if
done wrong. No other part is
difficult to rectify later
– Fred Brooks
14
Examples of Requirements - 1
• The system shall maintain records of

all payments made to employees on
accounts of salaries, bonuses,
travel/daily allowances, medical
allowances, etc.
15
• The system shall interface with the

central computer to send daily sales
and inventory data from every
retail store
16
• The system shall maintain records of

all library materials including
books, serials, newspapers and
magazines, video and audio tapes,
reports, collections of
transparencies,
CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.
17
• The system shall allow users to search

for an item by title, author, or by
International Standard Book Number
• The system’s user interface shall be

implemented using a web browser
18
• The system shall support at least

twenty transactions per second
• The system facilities which are

available to public users shall be
demonstrable in ten minutes or less
19
Kinds of Software Requirements
20
Kinds of Software Requirements
• Functional requirements
• Non-functional requirements
• Domain requirements
• Inverse requirements
• Design and implementation constraints
21
Functional Requirements
22
Functional Requirements - 1
• Statements describing what the system

does
• Functionality of the system
23
• Statements of services the system

should provide
– Reaction to particular inputs
– Behavior in particular situations
24
• Sequencing and parallelism are also

captured by functional
requirements
• Abnormal behavior is also documented

as functional requirements in the form
of exception handling
25
• Functional requirements should be

complete and consistent
• Customers and developers usually

focus all their attention on functional
requirements
26
Functional Requirements Example
#1
• The system shall solve a quadratic

equation using the following formula
x = (-b+sqrt(b2 – 4*a*c))/2*a
27
Functional Requirements Example # 2
• The user shall be able to search either

the entire database of patients or select
a subset from it (admitted patients, or
patients with asthma, etc.)
28
• The system shall provide appropriate

viewers for the user to read documents
in the document store
29
• Every order shall be allocated a unique

identifier (ORDER_ID) which the
user shall use to access that order
30
• The system shall allow customers to

return non-perishable items within
fifteen days of the purchase. A
customer must present the original sale
receipt to return an item
31
Comments on Examples
• Notice the level of detail in different

requirements described above.
Some are very detailed compared to
others
32
• Notice the ambiguity in the

requirement, which uses the term
‘appropriate viewers’
• This requirement does not mention the

formats of documents and types of
viewers, which can be used
33
• Notice the ambiguity in the

requirement for solving the quadratic
equation. The requirement does
not speak about the possibility when
the value of ‘a’ is zero
x = (-b+sqrt(b – 2
4*a*c))/2*a 34
• Incomplete and ambiguous

requirements are open to multiple
interpretations and assumptions
• This can lead to the development of

poor quality, or faulty, software
products
35
Summary
• Requirements form the basis of all

software engineering projects
• Functional requirements capture the
behavioral aspects/functions of the
proposed automated system
• Functional requirements are the
backbone of all software products
36
References
• ‘Requirements Engineering: Processes and

Techniques’ by G. Kotonya and I.
Sommerville, John Wiley & Sons, 1998
• Software Requirements: Objects, Functions,
and States by A. Davis, PH, 1993
• Software Engineering 6th Edition, by I.
Sommerville, 2000
• Software Engineering 5th Edition, by R.
Pressman
37

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Software Requirements

• Requirements form the basis for all

• Requirements engineering is the

• Something required, something wanted

• A complete description of what the

• Software requirements are complete

• They also represent External behavior

• Software requirements may be:

• Software requirements may be:

• A condition or capability that must be

• The system shall maintain records of

• The system shall interface with the

• The system shall maintain records of

• The system shall allow users to search

• The system’s user interface shall be

• The system shall support at least

• The system facilities which are

• Statements describing what the system

• Functionality of the system

• Statements of services the system

• Sequencing and parallelism are also

• Abnormal behavior is also documented

• Functional requirements should be

• Customers and developers usually

• The system shall solve a quadratic

• The user shall be able to search either

• The system shall provide appropriate

• Every order shall be allocated a unique

• The system shall allow customers to

• Notice the level of detail in different

• Notice the ambiguity in the

• This requirement does not mention the

• Notice the ambiguity in the

• Incomplete and ambiguous

• This can lead to the development of

• Requirements form the basis of all

• ‘Requirements Engineering: Processes and

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