Lecture 4

 The requirements are the descriptions of the system

services and constraints that are generated during the
requirements engineering process.
 The requirements can be a high-level abstract statement
of a service or of a system constraint ( may be used for a
bid for a contract - therefore must be open to
interpretation).
 The requirements can be a detailed mathematical
functional specification (May be the basis for the contract
itself - therefore must be defined in detail)

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 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.

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 Functional requirements
◦ Statements of functionalities and services 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.
◦ Problems arise when functional requirements are not precise.
◦ Ambiguous requirements may be interpreted in different ways by
developers and users.
◦ 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.

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 Functional requirements (Mentcare System)

◦ 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.

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 Domain requirements
◦ Constraints on the system from the domain of operation.

 Non-functional requirements
◦ These define system properties and constraints on the services or
functions offered by the system such as timing constraints,
constraints on the development process, standards, etc…
◦ Process requirements may also be specified mandating a
particular IDE, programming language or development method.
◦ Often apply to the system as a whole rather than individual
features or services.
◦ Non-functional requirements may be more critical than functional
requirements. If these are not met, the system may be useless.

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 Non-functional requirements
◦ Product requirements
 Requirements which specify that the delivered product must behave in
a particular way e.g. execution speed, reliability, etc.

◦ Organizational requirements
 Requirements which are a consequence of organizational 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.

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 Non-functional requirements

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 Non-functional requirements (Mentcare System)
Product requirement
The Mentcare system 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 Mentcare 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.

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 Any person or organization who is affected by the system in some
way and so who has a legitimate interest.
 Stakeholder types
◦ Users Define the system’s functionality and make use of it.
◦ Developers: Construct and deploy the system from specifications.
◦ System Administrators Run the system once deployed.
◦ Testers: Test the system to ensure that it is suitable for use.
◦ Support Staff: Provide support to users for the product or system
when it is running
◦ Maintainers: Manage the evolution of the system once it is
operational.
◦ System managers.
◦ System owners.
◦
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 Stakeholder (Mentcare System)
◦ Patients whose information is recorded in the system.
◦ Doctors who are responsible for assessing and treating patients.
◦ Nurses who administer some treatments.
◦ Medical receptionists who manage patients’ appointments.
◦ IT staff who are responsible for installing and maintaining the
system.
◦ A medical ethics manager who must ensure that the system
meets current ethical guidelines for patient care.
◦ Managers who obtain management information from the system.
◦ Medical records staff who are responsible for ensuring that
system information can be maintained and preserved.

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 The process of establishing the services that a customer
requires from a system and the constraints under which
it operates and is developed.
 The processes used for RE vary widely depending on
the application domain, the people involved and the
organization developing the requirements.
 However, there are a number of generic activities
common to all processes
◦ Requirements elicitation;
◦ Requirements analysis;
◦ Requirements validation;
◦ Requirements management.

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 Software engineers work with a range of system
stakeholders to find out about the application domain,
the services that the system should provide, the required
system performance, hardware constraints, other
systems, etc.

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 Requirements discovery
◦ Interacting with stakeholders to discover their requirements.
Domain requirements are also discovered at this stage.
 Requirements classification and organization
◦ Groups related requirements and organizes them into coherent
clusters.
 Requirements prioritization and negotiation
◦ Prioritizing requirements and resolving requirements conflicts.
 Requirements specification
◦ Requirements are documented and input into the next round of
the spiral.

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 The process of gathering information about the required
and existing systems and distilling the user and system
requirements from this information.
 Interaction is with system stakeholders from managers
to external regulators.
 Information gathering methods
◦ Interview
◦ Surveys
◦ Observation

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 Types of interview
◦ Closed interviews based on pre-determined list of questions
◦ Open interviews where various issues are explored with
stakeholders.
 Effective interviewing
◦ Normally a mix of closed and open-ended interviewing.
◦ Interviews are good for getting an overall understanding of what
stakeholders do and how they might interact with the system.
◦ Interviewers need to be open-minded without pre-conceived ideas
of what the system should do
◦ You need to prompt the use to talk about the system by
suggesting requirements rather than simply asking them what
they want.

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 Interview Steps
◦ Determine the People to Interview.
◦ Establish Objectives
 Determine the general areas to be discussed.
 List the facts you want to gather.
◦ Develop Interview Questions
 Open-ended questions.
 Closed-ended questions.
◦ Prepare for the Interview
◦ Conduct the Interview
◦ Document the Interview
◦ Evaluate the Interview

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 Interview Problems
◦ Application specialists may use language to describe their work
that isn’t easy for the requirements engineer to understand.

◦ Interviews are not good for understanding domain requirements

 Requirements engineers cannot understand specific domain
terminology;
 Some domain knowledge is so familiar that people find it hard to
articulate or think that it isn’t worth articulating.

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 When you seek input from a large group, surreys are a
very useful tool.
 Surveys give many people the opportunity to provide
input and suggestions.
 Effective Surveys
◦ Keep the questionnaire brief and user-friendly.
◦ Provide clear instructions.
◦ Arrange the questions in a logical order.
◦ Avoid misunderstandings; use simple terms and wording.
◦ Try not to lead the response.
◦ Limit the use of open-ended questions that are difficult to tabulate.
◦ Limit the use of questions that can raise concerns about job
security or other negative issues.

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 Spending a considerable time observing and analyzing
how people actually work.
 People do not have to explain or articulate their work.
 Social and organizational factors of importance may be
observed..
 Awareness of what other people are doing leads to
changes in the ways in which we do things.
 Ethnography is effective for understanding existing
processes but cannot identify new features that should
be added to a system.

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 Combines ethnography with prototyping

 Prototype development results in unanswered questions

which focus the ethnographic analysis.

 Ethnography problems
◦ It studies existing practices which may have some historical basis
which is no longer relevant.
◦ Hawthorne Effect:
 Some people tend to work harder and perform better when they are
participants in an experiment .

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 Requirements analysis allows the software analyst to:
◦ Elaborate on basic requirements established during earlier
requirement engineering tasks.
◦ Build models that depict user scenarios, functional activities,
problem classes and their relationships, system and class
behavior, and the flow of data as it is transformed.
◦ Write the user and system requirements in a requirements
document (Specification).
 User requirements have to be understandable by end-users and
customers who do not have a technical background.
 System requirements are more detailed requirements and may include
more technical information.
 The requirements may be part of a contract for the system
development
 It is therefore important that these are as complete as possible.

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 Nature Language
◦ The requirements are written using numbered sentences in
natural language. Each sentence should express one
requirement.
◦ The requirements can be understood by users and customers.
◦ Problems
 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.

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 Structured natural language
◦ The requirements are written in natural language on a standard
form or template. Each field provides information about an aspect
of the requirement.
◦ 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.
 Design description languages
◦ This approach uses a language like a programming language, but
with more abstract 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.

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 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.

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 Mathematical specifications
◦ These notations are based on mathematical concepts such as
finite-state machines or 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.

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 The software 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.

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 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 nonfunctional
definition system 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.

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Chapter Description
System This should describe the functional and nonfunctional requirements in more detail.
requirements If necessary, further detail may also be added to the nonfunctional 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.

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 Concerned with demonstrating that the requirements
define the system that the customer really wants.
 Requirements error costs are high so validation is very
important
◦ Fixing a requirements error after delivery may cost up to 100
times the cost of fixing an implementation error.

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 Requirements Checks
◦ Validity: Does the system provide the functions which best
support the customer’s needs?
◦ Consistency: Are there any requirements conflicts?
◦ Completeness: Are all functions required by the customer
included?
◦ Realism: Can the requirements be implemented given available
budget and technology
◦ Verifiability: Can the requirements be checked?

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 Requirements validation techniques
◦ Requirements reviews
 Systematic manual analysis of the requirements.
 Regular reviews should be held while the requirements definition is
being formulated.
 Both client and contractor staff should be involved in reviews.
 Reviews may be formal (with completed documents) or informal.
 Good communications between developers, customers and users can
resolve problems at an early stage.

◦ Prototyping
 Using an executable model of the system to check requirements.
◦ Test-case generation
 Developing tests for requirements to check testability.

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 Requirements management decisions:
◦ Requirements identification: Each requirement must be uniquely
identified so that it can be cross-referenced with other
requirements.
◦ A change management process: This is the set of activities that
assess the impact and cost of changes.
◦ Traceability policies: These policies define the relationships
between each requirement and between the requirements and the
system design that should be recorded.
◦ Tool support: Tools that may be used range from specialist
requirements management systems to spreadsheets and simple
database systems.

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 Requirements management is the process of managing
changing requirements during the requirements
engineering process and system development.
 New requirements emerge as a system is being
developed and after it has gone into use.
 You need to keep track of individual requirements and
maintain links between dependent requirements so that
you can assess the impact of requirements changes.
You need to establish a formal process for making
change proposals and linking these to system
requirements.

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 Deciding if a requirements change should be accepted
◦ Problem analysis and change specification
 During this stage, the problem or the change proposal is analyzed to
check that it is valid. This analysis is fed back to the change requestor
who may respond with a more specific requirements change proposal,
or decide to withdraw the request.
◦ Change analysis and costing
 The effect of the proposed change is assessed using traceability
information and general knowledge of the system requirements. Once
this analysis is completed, a decision is made whether or not to
proceed with the requirements change.
◦ Change implementation
 The requirements document and, where necessary, the system design
and implementation, are modified. Ideally, the document should be
organized so that changes can be easily implemented.

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 System Modelling

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