Software Requirements

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 1

 Objectives
⚫ To introduce the concepts of user and system
requirements
⚫ To describe functional and non-functional
requirements
⚫ To explain how software requirements may be
organised in a requirements document

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 2

 Topics covered
⚫ Functional and non-functional requirements
⚫ User requirements
⚫ System requirements
⚫ The software requirements document

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 3

 Requirements engineering
⚫ The process of establishing the services that the
customer requires from a system and the
constraints under which it operates and is
developed.
⚫ The requirements themselves are the
descriptions of the system services and
constraints that are generated during the
requirements engineering process.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 4

 What is a requirement?
⚫ 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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 5

 Types of requirement
⚫ User requirements
• Statements in natural language plus diagrams of the
services the system provides and its operational
constraints. Written for customers.
⚫ System requirements
• A structured document setting out detailed
descriptions of the system’s functions, services and
operational constraints. Defines what should be
implemented so may be part of a contract between
client and contractor.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 6

 Requirements readers

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 7

 Functional and non-functional requirements
⚫ Functional requirements
• Statements of services the system should provide, how the
system should react to particular inputs and how the system
should behave in particular situations.
⚫ Non-functional requirements
• constraints on the services or functions offered by the system
such as timing constraints, constraints on the development
process, standards, etc.
⚫ Domain requirements
• Requirements that come from the application domain of the
system and that reflect characteristics of that domain.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 8

 The LIBSYS system
⚫ A library system that provides a single interface
to a number of databases of articles in different
libraries.
⚫ Users can search for, download and print these
articles for personal study.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 9

 Examples of functional requirements
⚫ The user shall be able to search either all of the
initial set of databases or select a subset from it.
⚫ The system shall provide appropriate viewers for
the user to read documents in the document
store.
⚫ Every order shall be allocated a unique identifier
(ORDER_ID) which the user shall be able to
copy to the account’s permanent storage area.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 10

 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 ‘appropriate viewers’
• User intention – Viewers with different privilege
rights.
• Developer interpretation - Provide a text viewer that
shows the contents of the document.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 11

 Requirements completeness and consistency

⚫ In principle, requirements 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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 12

 Non-functional classifications
⚫ Product requirements
• Requirements which specify that the delivered product must
behave in a particular way e.g. execution speed, reliability, etc.
⚫ Organisational requirements
• Requirements which are a consequence of organisational
policies and procedures e.g. process standards used,
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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 13

 Non-functional requirement types
Non-func tional
requir ements

Product Organisational External

requir ements requir ements requir ements

Efficiency Relia bility Porta bility Inter oper a bility Ethical

requir ements requir ements requir ements requir ements requir ements

Usa bility Deli very Implementa tion Standar ds Leg isla tive
requir ements requir ements requir ements requir ements requir ements

Performance Space Pri vacy Safety

requir ements requir ements requir ements requir ements

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 14

 Non-functional requirements examples
⚫ Product requirement
8.1 The user interface for LIBSYS shall be implemented as simple HTML
without frames or Java applets.
⚫ Organisational requirement
9.3.2 The system development process and deliverable documents shall
conform to the process and deliverables defined in XYZCo-SP-
STAN-95.
⚫ External requirement
7.6.5 The system shall not disclose any personal information about
customers apart from their name and reference number to the
operators of the system.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 15

 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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 16

 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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 17

 Domain requirements
⚫ Derived from the application domain and
describe system characteristics and features that
reflect the domain.
⚫ Domain requirements be new functional
requirements, constraints on existing
requirements (non-functional).
⚫ If domain requirements are not satisfied, the
system may be unworkable.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 18

 Library system domain requirements
⚫ There shall be a standard user interface to all
databases which shall be based on the Z39.50
standard.
⚫ Because of copyright restrictions, some
documents must be deleted immediately on
arrival. Depending on the user’s requirements,
these documents will either be printed locally on
the system server for manually forwarding to the
user or routed to a network printer.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 19

 Domain requirements problems
⚫ Understandability
• Requirements are expressed in the language of the
application domain;
• This is often not understood by software engineers
developing the system.
⚫ Implicitness
• Domain specialists understand the area so well that
they do not think of making the domain requirements
explicit.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 20

 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 amalgamation
• Several different requirements may be expressed
together.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 21

 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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 22

 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 may be designed to structure
the requirements;
• The use of a specific design may be a domain
requirement.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 23

 Alternatives to NL specification
Notation Description
Structured natural This approach depends on defining standard forms or templates to express the
language requirements specification.
Design This approach uses a language like a programming language but with more
description abstract features to specify the requirements by defining an operational model of the
languages system. This approach is not now widely used although it can be useful for interface
specifications.
Graphical A graphical language, supplemented by text annotations is used to define the
notations functional requirements for the system. An example of such a graphical language
are use-case descriptions and sequence diagrams.
Mathematical These are notations based on mathematical concepts such as finite-state machines
specifications or sets. These unambiguous specifications reduce the arguments between customer
and contractor about system functionality. However, most customers don’t
understand formal specifications and are reluctant to accept it as a system contract.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 24

 Form-based specifications
⚫ Definition of the function or entity.
⚫ Description of inputs and where they come from.
⚫ Description of outputs and where they go to.
⚫ Indication of other entities required.
⚫ Pre and post conditions (if appropriate).
⚫ The side effects (if any) of the function.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 25

 Form-based node specification
Insulin Pump/Control Software/SRS/3.3.2

Function Compute insulin dose: Safe sugar level

Description Computes the dose of insulin to be delivered when the current measured sugar level is in
the safe zone between 3 and 7 units.
Inputs Current sugar reading (r2), the previous two readings (r0 and r1)
Source Current sugar reading from sensor. Other readings from memory.
Outputs CompDose – the dose in insulin to be delivered
Destination Main control loop
Action: CompDose is zero if the sugar level is stable or falling or if the level is increasing but the rate of
increase is decreasing. If the level is increasing and the rate of increase is increasing, then CompDose is
computed by dividing the difference between the current sugar level and the previous level by 4 and
rounding the result. If the result, is rounded to zero then CompDose is set to the minimum dose that can
be delivered.
Requires Two previous readings so that the rate of change of sugar level can be computed.
Pre-condition The insulin reservoir contains at least the maximum allowed single dose of insulin..
Post-condition r0 is replaced by r1 then r1 is replaced by r2
Side-effects None

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 26

 Graphical models
⚫ Graphical models are most useful when you
need to show how state changes or where you
need to describe a sequence of actions.
⚫ Different graphical models are explained briefly
and also in future lectures

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 27

 Sequence diagrams
⚫ These show the sequence of events that take
place during some user interaction with a
system.
⚫ You read them from top to bottom to see the
order of the actions that take place.
⚫ Cash withdrawal from an ATM
• Validate card;
• Handle request;
• Complete transaction.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 28

 Sequence diagram of ATM withdrawal
ATM Database

Card
Card number

Card OK
PIN request
PIN
Option menu Validate card

<<exception>>
invalid card

Withdraw request Balance request

Balance
Amount request
Handle request
Amount
Debit (amount)

<<exception>>
insufficient cash Debit response

Card

Card removed
Complete
Cash transaction

Cash removed
Receipt

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 29

 The requirements document
⚫ The requirements document is the official
statement of what is required of the system
developers.
⚫ Should include both a definition of user
requirements and a 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

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 30

 Users of a requirements document

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 31

 IEEE requirements standard
⚫ Defines a generic structure for a requirements
document that must be instantiated for each
specific system.
• Introduction.
• General description.
• Specific requirements.
• Appendices.
• Index.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 32

 Requirements document structure
⚫ Preface
⚫ Introduction
⚫ Glossary
⚫ User requirements definition
⚫ System architecture
⚫ System requirements specification
⚫ System models
⚫ System evolution
⚫ Appendices
⚫ Index

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 33

 Key points
⚫ Requirements set out what the system should do and
define constraints on its operation and implementation.
⚫ Functional requirements set out services the system
should provide.
⚫ Non-functional requirements constrain the system being
developed or the development process.
⚫ User requirements are high-level statements of what the
system should do. User requirements should be written
using natural language, tables and diagrams.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 34

 Key points

⚫ System requirements are intended to

communicate the functions that the system
should provide.
⚫ A software requirements document is an agreed
statement of the system requirements.
⚫ The IEEE standard is a useful starting point for
defining more detailed specific requirements
standards.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 6 Slide 35