By the end of this chapter, you should be able to

complete Assignment 2.
Assignment 2 is about Requirement Specifications.
(1)Engineering requirements,
(2)(2) Constraints, and
(3)(3) Standards.

2
 Raw (Marketing) Requirement
Customer
Customer Feedback

Customer Representation Develop Technical Feedback

System
Requirements

Constraints & Technical

Standards Representation Technical
Environment
Community

3
Marketing Requirement:
 You have studied these requirements in chapter number 2.
 These are the raw requirements (non-technical).
 Based on the marketing requirements, u have developed the problem
statement of your project.

Engineering Requirement
 An engineering requirement is a more formal way to describe the requirement.
 It is developed by the system engineer, using the feedback from customer,
environment and technical community. (previous diagram)
 There are different types of engineering requirements.
 You are going to study in this chapter.

Requirements Specification
 When you combine all the engineering requirements for a project in a single
document, it is called requirement specification document.
 To summarize, the first step was to write a problem statement document.
 Based on the problem statement document, u will generate the requirement
specification document. (IEEE-STD 1233 can be used, as described in the
previous slide)

4
3.2 Engineering Requirements

5
1) Abstract: (First property of an Engineering
Requirement)
 The requirement should only tell that what the
system will do and not how the system will do it.
 If the Requirement is not abstract, it means it is
not an Engineering Requirement.

2) Verifiable (Second property of an Engineering

Requirement)
 There should be a way to check that the
requirement has been achieved.
 If the requirement can not be verified or checked
or tested, it means that it is not an engineering
requirement

6
3) Unambiguous ‫وض‬7‫ة من الغم‬7‫( خالي‬Third property of an Engineering
Requirement)
 The requirement should be very much clear so that different
people should Not take different meanings

4) Traceable ‫ا‬777‫تعقبه‬ (Fourth property of an Engineering

Requirement)
 Every requirement can be traced in the requirement
specification document.
 It is only possible when all the requirements in the document
have specific numbers.

To summarize, an engineering requirement must

have four properties. If any single property is
missing in a requirement, we can not call it an
engineering requirement. All the four properties
must be satisfied in an engineering requirement.

7
Does the following requirement meet the four
desirable properties? (abstract, verifiable,
unambiguous, traceable)

“The robot must have an average forward

speed of 0.5 feet/sec, a top speed of at
least one foot/sec, and the ability to
accelerate from standstill to the average
speed in under one second.”
All the four properties are satisfied so it is a
correct engineering requirement.

8
Does the following requirement meet the four
desirable properties? (abstract,
unambiguous, verifiable, traceable)

“The robot must employ IR sensors to sense

its external environment and navigate
autonomously with a battery life of one
hour.”

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 The problem in the requiremnt on previous
page is that it is not abstract.
 It was not abstract because, it is telling you to
use IR sensors.
 An abstract requirement is the one which
should NOT tell you anything about the solution
(how to do). It should only tell you what a
system should do.
 Although, the requirement on previous slide
was verifiable, unambiguous and traceable but
it was not abstract and therefore can not be
called an engineering requirement.

10
 IMPORTANT – Your requirements for
your project must also be REALISTIC.
 => You need to demonstrate that

the target you have selected is

technically feasible.
 How are you going to do this?

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 “The car should run at a speed of 5000
Km/s.”
 Is it abstract ?? Yes
 Is it verifiable ? Yes
 Is it unambiguous ? Yes
 Is it traceable ? Yes

Is it an engineering requirement ? No
Because it is UNREAL

Copyright 2007 Design for Electrical and Computer

Ralph M. Ford and Chris Coulston Engineers , published by McGraw Hill 12
 So far you have studies what are the properties of
engineering requirements.
 Now , you will study thdt how you can write an
engineering requirement for your project.
 For this you need feedback from three stakeholders:
◦ (1) Marketing requirements from the first stakeholder
(Chapter 2)
◦ (2) Constraints and standards from the second
stakeholder (Next topic)
◦ Based on the input from the first two stakeholders, u will
present to the third stakeholder which is Technical
committee

So our next step is to learn constraints and standards

Copyright 2007 Design for Electrical and Computer

Ralph M. Ford and Chris Coulston Engineers , published by McGraw Hill 13
 Constraint = design decision imposed by the
environment or a stakeholder that impacts or limits
the design. (see the original overview diagram).
 Example constraint: The system must use a
PIC18F52 microcontroller to implement processing
functions.

Generally, as u have seen in previous slides that an

engineering requirement is free from Constraints
‫ود‬7‫القي‬. However, it is quite possible that the system
engineer includes some constraints in the
requirement specification document. These
constraints are from Environment.

14
 Standard is something on which people in
your community are agreed upon and u
have to follow it.
 Types of standards:
◦ Safety standards
◦ Testing standard
◦ Reliability standards
◦ Communication standards
◦ Data standards,
◦ Documentation standards,
◦ Design standards

15
 You have input from customer
◦ Engineering requirements
 You have input from Environment
◦ Constraints and Standards

 Based on aforementioned two inputs what

you will do ????

Copyright 2007 Design for Electrical and Computer

Ralph M. Ford and Chris Coulston Engineers , published by McGraw Hill 16
 Structured workshops and brainstorming
 Interviews and surveys
 Observation of processes and devices in use
 Benchmarking and market analysis
 Prototyping and simulation
 Research survey

17
 Need to know what type of requirement to
select for a given system.
 These are but EXAMPLES – you must

determine the correct ones for your system!

 Hint: don’t just try to copy and paste them.

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Performance
 Example 1: The system should detect 90% of
all human faces in an image.
 Example 2: The amplifier will have a total
harmonic distortion less than 1%.
Reliability & Availability
 Example 1: The system will have a reliability
of 95% in five years. (reliability requirement)
 Example 2: The system will be operational
from 4AM to 10PM, 365 days a year.
(availability requirement)

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Energy
 Example: The system will operate for a minimum of three
hours without needing power

Environmental
 Example 1: The system should be able to operate in the
temperature range of 0°C to 75°C.
 Example 2: The system must be waterproof and operate while
submersed in water.
 Example 3: The system must be shock proof (ISO 1413 shock-
resistant standard)
 Cost:
◦ Example: The system should not exceed the cost of $ 200.

Many more examples in the book.

Read different types of examples from
the book Page 42 to 49

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 On page 43, some examples of engineering
requirements are given related to the
functionality. These are called (on page 43 of
the book) functional requirements.
◦ Please write the engineering requirements of your
project related to the functionality (Functional
Requirements)
 On page 43, some examples of engineering
requirements are given related to the
economic (cost) and energy.
◦ Please write the engineering requirements of your
project related to the economic and energy …..

21
 On page 44, some examples of engineering
requirements are given related to the
environmental as well as health and safety.
◦ Please write the engineering requirements of
your project related to environmental as well as
health and safety …..
 On page 45, some examples of engineering
requirements are given legal issues and
maintainability….
◦ Please write the engineering requirements of
your project related to the legal issues and
maintainability ……..

22
 You have done so far:
◦ What are engineering requirements (five
properties)
 Abstract, Verifiable, Unambiguous, Tracible, Realistic
◦ Constraints and Standards from Environment
◦ Types of requirements
 Functional, performance, cost, storage, safety,
environmental, reliability, availability, maintenance,
power,

Copyright 2007 Design for Electrical and Computer

Ralph M. Ford and Chris Coulston Engineers , published by McGraw Hill 23
3.3 The Requirements
Specification

24
 When u complete all the requirements
(different types) related to your project, u
combine them into a document. Remember
that each single requirement must satisfy
the five basic properties. This is called
requirement specification document.
 Now, there are some properties which must

be there AS A WHOLE

25
 (1) Normalized/Orthogonal:

◦ The requirements should be normalized or

orthogonal.

◦ There is no repetition.

◦ When you finish all the requirements, u check

them all and make sure that all the requirements
are different from each other.

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 (2) Consistent:

◦ It is very much important to check that the

requirements should not contradict ‫اقض‬77‫ تن‬with
each other.

◦ If all the properties are not contradicting with

each other, then it is called the properties are
consistent.

27
 Validation means that the requirement
specification document has now been completed.
 We can not say that the requirement specification
document is completed until the customer is
satisfied. Ask the customer if the
requirements meet their needs.
 For each engineering requirement
◦ (1) abstract (2) Verifiable (3) Unambiguous (4) Traceable (5)
Realistic
 For the complete Requirements Specification Document
◦ (1) Orthogonal and (2) Consistent?

28
Marketing
Requirem Engineering Justification
ents Requirements
1 The total harmonic Based upon competitive
distortion should be <0.1%. benchmarking and existing
amplifier technology. Class A,
B, and AB amplifiers are able to
obtain this level of THD.
2 Should be able to sustain an This power range provides
output power that averages more than adequate sound
 35 watts with a peak throughout the automobile
value of  70 watts. compartment. It is a
sustainable output power for
projected amplifier complexity.
1, 2 Should have an efficiency Achievable with several
() >40 %. different classes of power
amplifiers.
3 Average installation time Past trials using standard audio
for the power and audio and power jacks demonstrate
connections should not that this is a reasonable
exceed 5 minutes. installation time.
29
 3 The dimensions should Fits under a typical car
not exceed 6” x 8”x 3”. seat. Prior models and
estimates show that all
components should fit
within this package size.
4 Production cost should This is based upon
not exceed $100. competitive market analysis
and previous system
designs.
Marketing Requirements
1.The system should have excellent sound quality.
2.The system should have high output power.
3.The system should be easy to install.
4.The system should have low cost.

It is important to note that sometimes there are more than one

engineering requirements for a single marketing requirement.

30
 Marketing
Requiremen Engineering Requirements Justification
ts
2, 4, 6 Functionality Requirement: These are the basic nine commands
System will implement nine that are used to control an iPod and
voice command functions will provide all functionality needed.
( menu, play/pause, previous,
next, up, down, left, right and
select) and respond
appropriately according to each
command.
1, 3, 4, 7 Performance Requirements: The system needs to provide
The time to respond to voice convenient use by responding to the
commands and provide audio user inputs within a short time
feedback should not exceed 3 period. Based on research it was
seconds. determined that the response time
for the iPod is less than 1 second and
an average voice recognition system
requires 2 seconds to recognize
commands.
4, 6 Performance Requirements: Research demonstrates that this is a
The accuracy of the system in typical accuracy of voice recognition
accepting voice commands will chips. Speaker independent systems
be between 95% and 98%. can achieve 95% and speaker-
dependent up to 98%. 31
 5, 6 Energy or power The automobile provides 12V
requirements: DC. A current draw budget
The system should be able estimate was developed with
to operate from a 12 V potential components and
source and will draw a 150mA was an upper limit of
maximum of 150 mA. current estimated.
5, 6, 7 Storage Requirements: This system must be able to fit
The dimensions of the in a car compartment,
prototype should not exceed somewhere between the seats.
6” x 4” x 1.5”. Estimate is based upon a size
budget calculation using
typical parts.
Marketing Requirements
1.Should not minimize or slow down the functional quality of the iPod.

2.User should be able to search for songs and artists and receive feedback

on selection.
3.System should provide clear understandable speech.

4.System should be able to understand voice commands from user.

5.Should be able to fit and operate in an automobile.

6.Should be easy to use.

7.Should be portable. 32