Chapter 3 : Requirements

Engineering (PART 1)
 Topic Outline
• Functional and non-functional requirements
• The software requirements document
• Requirements specification
• Requirements engineering processes
• Requirements elicitation and analysis
• Requirements validation
• Requirements management
 Objectives
▪ Understand the concept of users and system
requirements and why these requirements should be
written in different ways.
▪ Understand the differences between functional and non-
functional requirements.
 Requirements Engineering
▪ The requirement for a system  descriptions of what the
system should do (services that its provides & the constraints
on its operation).
▪ These requirements reflect the needs of customer for a system
that serves a certain purpose (e.g. controlling a device, placing
order, finding information).
▪ The process of finding out, analyzing, documenting and
checking these services and constraints is called requirements
engineering (RE).
 What is a requirements
 It may range from a high-level abstract statement of a service
or of a system constraint to a detailed mathematical
functional specification.
 This is inevitable as requirements may serve a dual function
▪ May be the basis for a bid for a contract - therefore must be
open to interpretation;
▪ May be the basis for the contract itself - therefore must be
defined in detail;
▪ Both these statements may be called requirements.
 Types of Requirement
 User requirements
– Describes the services that the system should provide and the
constrains under which it must operate.
– It’s more of generic requirements. Don’t expect to see any level
of detail, or what exactly the system will do.
– Usually written in a natural language and supplied by diagrams.
 System Requirements
– A more detailed description of the system services and the
operational constrains such as how the system will be used, and
development constrains such as the programming languages.
– Level of detail is needed by those who are involved in the
system development, like engineers, system architects, testers,
etc.
User and system requirements

General

More
specific
Readers of different types of
requirements specification
3.1 FUNCTIONAL AND NON-
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT
 Functional and non-functional
requirements
 Functional requirements
– Statements of services/functions the system should provide, how the
system should react to particular inputs and how the system should
behave in particular situations.
– May state what the system should not do.
 Non-functional requirements
– Constraints on the services or functions provided by the system such as
timing constraints, constraints on the development process, standards,
etc.
– Often apply to the system as a whole rather than individual features or
services.
 Domain requirements
– Constraints on the system from the domain of operation.
– Derived from the application domain and describe system characteristics
and features that reflect the domain.
 Functional requirements
 Describe what the system should do.
 Depend on the type of software being developed, expected
users of the software and the general approach taken by the
organization when writing requirements.
 Functional user requirements may be high-level statements of
what the system should do.
 Functional system requirements should describe the system
services in detail, its i/o, exceptions and so on.
 Examples of functional
requirements of LIBSYS System
 A library system that provides a single interface to a
number of databases of articles in different
libraries.
 User can search for, download and print these
articles for personal study.
 Functional requirements for the
MHC-PMS
 A user shall be able to search the appointments lists
for all clinics.
 The system shall generate each day, for each clinic, a
list of patients who are expected to attend
appointments that day.
 Each staff member using the system shall be uniquely
identified by his or her 8-digit employee number.

*Notes: Mental Health Care Patient Management System (MHC-PMS)

 Requirements imprecision
 Problems arise when requirements are not precisely stated.
 Ambiguous requirements may be interpreted in different
ways by developers and users.
 Consider the term ‘search’ in requirement 1
– User intention – search for a patient name across all
appointments in all clinics;
– Developer interpretation – search for a patient name in an
individual clinic. User chooses clinic then search.
 Requirements completeness
and consistency
In principle, the functional requirements specification of a
system should be both complete and consistent.
 Complete
– They should include descriptions of all facilities required.
 Consistent
– There should be no conflicts or contradictions in the
descriptions of the system facilities.
In practice, it is impossible to produce a complete and consistent
requirements document in complex system.
 Non-functional requirements
 Are not directly concerned with specific services delivered by
the system.
 Related to emergent system properties such as reliability,
response time and store requirements.
 Non-functional requirements may be more critical than
functional requirements. If these are not met, the system
may be useless.
 Example:
– If an aircraft doesn’t mean meet it’s reliability requirements,
it won’t be safe for operation.
– If an embedded control system fails to meet it’s performance
requirements, the control functions won’t operate correctly.
 Non-functional requirements
implementation
■ Non-functional requirements may affect the overall
architecture of a system rather than the individual
components.
– For example, to ensure that performance requirements are
met, you may have to organize the system to minimize
communications between components.
■ A single non-functional requirement, such as a security
requirement, may generate a number of related functional
requirements that define system services that are required.
– It may also generate requirements that restrict existing
requirements.

Chapter 3 Requirements engineering

Types of non-functional
requirement
 Non-functional classifications
 Product requirements
– Requirements which specify /constrain the behaviour of the
software.
– Example: Performance requirements (how fast the system must
execute, how much memory it requires), usability requirements,
security requirements, dependability requirements.
 Organisational requirements
– Requirements which are a consequence of organisational
policies and procedures e.g. process standards used, specify the
programming language, implementation requirements, etc.
 External requirements
– Requirements which arise from factors which are external to the
system and its development process e.g. interoperability
requirements, legislative requirements, etc.
 Examples of non-functional
requirements in the MHC-PMS
 Product requirement
The MHC-PMS shall be available to all clinics during normal working
hours (Mon–Fri, 0830–17.30). Downtime within normal working
hours shall not exceed five seconds in any one day.

 Organizational requirement
Users of the MHC-PMS system shall authenticate themselves using
their health authority identity card.
 External requirement
The system shall implement patient privacy provisions as set out in
HStan-03-2006-priv.
 Common Problem with non-
functional requirements
– In practice, customers for a system often find it difficult to
translate their goals into measurable requirements.
– Problem: User/customers often propose these requirements as
general goals (e.g. ease of use, the ability of the system to
recover from failure).
– They don’t understand what some number defining the required
speed or reliability.
– Non-functional requirements should be measurable.
– We should write non-functional requirements quantitatively, so
that they can be tested.
– We can measure them when the system being tested to check
whether the system meet it’s non-functional requirements.
Non-functional requirements examples
• Product requirement
The user interface for LIBSYS shall be implemented as simple
HTML without frames or Java applets.
• Organisational requirement
The system development process and deliverable documents shall
conform to the process and deliverables defined in XYZCo-SP-
STAN-95.
• External requirement
The system shall not disclose any personal information about
customers apart from their name and reference number to the
operators of the system.
 Goals and requirements
• Non-functional requirements may be very difficult to state
precisely and imprecise requirements may be difficult to
verify.
• Goal
– A general intention of the user such as ease of use.
• Verifiable non-functional requirement
– A statement using some measure that can be objectively tested.
• Goals are helpful to developers as they convey the intentions
of the system users.

Chapter 4 Requirements engineering

 Usability requirements
• The system should be easy to use by medical staff and should
be organized in such a way that user errors are minimized.
(Goal)
• Medical staff shall be able to use all the system functions after
four hours of training. After this training, the average number
of errors made by experienced users shall not exceed two per
hour of system use. (Testable non-functional requirement)

Chapter 4 Requirements engineering

 Examples
• A system goal
– The system should be easy to use by experienced controllers and
should be organised in such a way that user errors are minimised.
• A verifiable non-functional requirement
– Experienced controllers shall be able to use all the system functions
after a total of two hours training. After this training, the average
number of errors made by experienced users shall not exceed two per
day.
Users of a requirements
document
 Metrics for specifying non-
functional requirements
Property Measure
Speed Processed transactions/second
User/event response time
Screen refresh time
Size Mbytes
Number of ROM chips
Ease of use Training time
Number of help frames
Reliability Mean time to failure
Probability of unavailability
Rate of failure occurrence
Availability
Robustness Time to restart after failure
Percentage of events causing failure
Probability of data corruption on failure
Portability Percentage of target dependent statements
Number of target systems
 3.2 THE SOFTWARE
REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT
 The software requirements
document
■ The software requirements document is the official
statement of what is required of the system developers
should implement.
■ Should include both a definition of user requirements and a
detailed specification of the system requirements.
■ It is NOT a design document. As far as possible, it should set
of WHAT the system should do rather than HOW it should do
it.
 Requirements document
variability
■ Information in requirements document depends on type
of system and the approach to development used.
■ Systems developed incrementally will, typically, have less
detail in the requirements document.
■ Requirements documents standards have been designed
e.g. IEEE standard. These are mostly applicable to the
requirements for large systems engineering projects.
 The structure of a
requirements document
Chapter Description
Preface This should define the expected readership of the document and describe its version
history, including a rationale for the creation of a new version and a summary of the
changes made in each version.
Introduction This should describe the need for the system. It should briefly describe the system’s
functions and explain how it will work with other systems. It should also describe
how the system fits into the overall business or strategic objectives of the organization
commissioning the software.
Glossary This should define the technical terms used in the document. You should not make
assumptions about the experience or expertise of the reader.

User requirements Here, you describe the services provided for the user. The non-functional system
definition requirements should also be described in this section. This description may use natural
language, diagrams, or other notations that are understandable to customers. Product
and process standards that must be followed should be specified.

System architecture This chapter should present a high-level overview of the anticipated system
architecture, showing the distribution of functions across system modules.
Architectural components that are reused should be highlighted.
 The structure of a
requirements document
Chapter Description
System This should describe the functional and non-functional requirements in more detail. If
requirements necessary, further detail may also be added to the non-functional requirements.
specification Interfaces to other systems may be defined.
System models This might include graphical system models showing the relationships between the
system components and the system and its environment. Examples of possible models
are object models, data-flow models, or semantic data models.

System evolution This should describe the fundamental assumptions on which the system is based, and
any anticipated changes due to hardware evolution, changing user needs, and so on.
This section is useful for system designers as it may help them avoid design decisions
that would constrain likely future changes to the system.

Appendices These should provide detailed, specific information that is related to the application
being developed; for example, hardware and database descriptions. Hardware
requirements define the minimal and optimal configurations for the system. Database
requirements define the logical organization of the data used by the system and the
relationships between data.

Index Several indexes to the document may be included. As well as a normal alphabetic
index, there may be an index of diagrams, an index of functions, and so on.
3.3 REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION
 Requirement Specification

■ Process of writing down the user and system requirements in

a requirement document.
■ User requirements have to be understandable by end-users
and customers who do not have a technical background.
■ Should NOT include details of the system architecture/design.
■ Should write user requirements in natural language, with
simple tables, forms and intuitive diagrams.
 Writing Requirement
Specification (Techniques)
 Ways of Writing a System
Requirements Specification
Notation Description
Natural language The requirements are written using numbered sentences in natural language. Each
sentence should express one requirement.

Structured natural The requirements are written in natural language on a standard form or template. Each
language field provides information about an aspect of the requirement.

Design description This approach uses a language like a programming language, but with more abstract
language features to specify the requirements by defining an operational model of the system.
This approach is now rarely used although it can be useful for interface specifications.

Graphical notations Graphical models, supplemented by text annotations, are used to define the functional
requirements for the system; UML use case and sequence diagrams are commonly
used.

Mathematical These notations are based on mathematical concepts such as finite-state machines or
specifications sets. Although these unambiguous specifications can reduce the ambiguity in a
requirements document, most customers don’t understand a formal specification.
They cannot check that it represents what they want and are reluctant to accept it as a
system contract.
 Requirements and Design
■ In principle, requirements should state what the system
should do and the design should describe how it does this.
■ In practice, requirements and design are inseparable.
– A system architecture maybe designed to structure the
requirements;
–The system may inter-operate with other systems that generate
design requirements;
–The use of a specific architecture to satisfy non-functional
requirements maybe a domain requirement.
–This maybe the consequence of a regulatory requirement.
 Natural Language Specification
■ Requirements are written as natural language sentences
supplemented by diagrams and tables.
■ Used for writing requirements because it is expressive,
intuitive and universal. This means that the requirements can
be understood by users and customers.
Guidelines for writing requirements
■ Invent a standard format and use it for all requirements.
■ Use language in a consistent way. Use shall for mandatory
requirements, should for desirable requirements.
■ Use text highlighting to identify key parts of the
requirement.
■ Avoid the use of computer jargon.
■ Include an explanation (rationale) of why a requirement is
necessary.
 Problems With Natural Language
 Lack of clarity
– Precision is difficult without making the document difficult to
read.
 Requirements confusion
– Functional and non-functional requirements tend to be mixed-
up.
 Requirements amalgation
– Several different requirements maybe expressed together.
 Example requirements (Natural
Language Specification) for the Insulin
Pump Software System
3.2 The system shall measure the blood sugar and deliver insulin, if
required, every 10 minutes. (Changes in blood sugar are relatively slow so
more frequent measurement is unnecessary; less frequent measurement
could lead to unnecessarily high sugar levels.)
3.6 The system shall run a self-test routine every minute with the
conditions to be tested and the associated actions defined in Table 1. (A
self-test routine can discover hardware and software problems and alert the
user to the fact the normal operation may be impossible.)

Chapter 4 Requirements engineering

 Structured specifications
• An approach to writing requirements where the freedom
of the requirements writer is limited and requirements are
written in a standard way.
• This works well for some types of requirements e.g.
requirements for embedded control system but is
sometimes too rigid for writing business system
requirements.

Chapter 4 Requirements engineering

 A structured specification of a
requirement for an insulin pump (1/2)

Chapter 4 Requirements engineering

A structured specification of a requirement
for an insulin pump (2/2)

Chapter 4 Requirements engineering

 Tabular specification
• Used to supplement natural language.
• Particularly useful when you have to define a number of
possible alternative courses of action.
• For example, the insulin pump systems bases its computations
on the rate of change of blood sugar level and the tabular
specification explains how to calculate the insulin
requirement for different scenarios.
 Tabular specification of
computation for an insulin pump
Condition Action

Sugar level falling (r2 < r1) CompDose = 0

Sugar level stable (r2 = r1) CompDose = 0

Sugar level increasing and rate of CompDose = 0

increase decreasing
((r2 – r1) < (r1 – r0))
Sugar level increasing and rate of CompDose =
increase stable or increasing round ((r2 – r1)/4)
((r2 – r1) ≥ (r1 – r0)) If rounded result = 0 then
CompDose =
MinimumDose

Chapter 4 Requirements engineering

 Key points
■ Requirements for a software system set out what the system
should do and define constraints on its operation and
implementation.
■ Functional requirements are statements of the services that the
system must provide or are descriptions of how some
computations must be carried out.
■ Non-functional requirements often constrain the system being
developed and the development process being used.
■ They often relate to the emergent properties of the system and
therefore apply to the system as a whole.
■ The software requirements document is an agreed statement
of the system requirements. It should be organized so that both
system customers and software developers can use it.
 ACTIVITIES
1. Which one of the following is a functional
requirement?
a) Maintainability
b) Portability
c) Robustness
d) None of the mentioned
 ACTIVITIES
2. “Consider a system where, a heat sensor
detects an intrusion and alerts the security
company.” What kind of a requirement the
system is providing ?
a) Functional
b) Non-Functional
c) Known Requirement
d) None of the mentioned
 ACTIVITIES
3. Which of the following statements explains portability
in non-functional requirements?
a) It is a degree to which software running on one platform
can easily be converted to run on another platform
b) It cannot be enhanced by using languages, OS’ and tools
that are universally available and standardized
c) The ability of the system to behave consistently in a
user-acceptable manner when operating within the
environment for which the system was intended
d) None of the mentioned
 ACTIVITIES
4. Functional requirements capture the intended
behavior of the system.
a) True
b) False