Chapter 4-

Requirements
Engineering

CSC3324
Dr Houda CHAKIRI

Copyright © 2016, 2011, 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
 Topics to be
Covered
1. Functional and non-functional
requirements
2. Requirements engineering
processes
3. Requirements elicitation
4. Requirements specification
5. Requirements validation
6. Requirements change
Requirements Engineering

The process of establishing the services that a

customer requires from a system and the constraints
under which it operates and is developed.

The system requirements are the descriptions of the

system services and constraints that are generated
during the requirements engineering process.
 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.
Requirement Statement Examples
Detailed Mathematical Functional
High-Level Specification

The mobile banking app must authenticate

The mobile banking app
users using a two-factor authentication
should provide a (2FA) mechanism. The first factor is a
seamless and secure password, and the second factor is a one-
user experience. time password (OTP) generated and sent to
the user’s registered mobile number or email.
The OTP should be a 6-digit numeric code,
valid for 5 minutes, and must be generated
using a secure random number generator
compliant with NIST SP 800-90A standards.
The system should be capable of handling
up to 500,000 OTP generation requests per
minute, with a response time of less than 1
second for OTP delivery.
Types of
Requirement
 Types of
Requirement
Business requirements
Outline what the business aims to achieve with the project, focusing on the
scope, goals, and expected outcomes that align with the company's
strategic objectives.

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.
User and
System
Requirements
Case study:
p34-36
Readers of
Different Types
of
Requirements
Specification
p34-36
 • Any person or organization who is affected
by the system in some way and so who has a
legitimate interest
• Stakeholder types:
• End users
• System managers
• System owners
• External stakeholders
System
Stakeholders
Functional and
Non-Functional
Requirements

Copyright © 2016, 2011, 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
 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. 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.
Examples (Test your understanding)
• The system should support up to 100,000 concurrent users without
performance degradation.
• The system should enable users to transfer funds between their
own accounts and to external accounts, with confirmation through
a One-Time Password (OTP).
• All user interactions with the system, especially financial
transactions, must be logged and stored securely for at least seven
years, as mandated by financial regulatory authorities.
• The system must allow users to log in using a username and
password. After three failed login attempts, the account should be
locked for 15 minutes.
• The application must use encryption (AES-256) for all data
transmission and storage.
• The system must comply with the local banking regulations,
including Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws and Know Your
Customer (KYC) requirements.
 Functional
Requirements

• Describe functionality or system Example:

services. 1. A user shall be able to search
• Depend on the type of software, the appointments lists for all
expected users and the type of clinics.
system where the software is 2. The system shall generate
used. each day, for each clinic, a list
• Functional user requirements of patients who are expected
may be high-level statements of to attend appointments that
what the system should do. day.
• Functional system 3. Each staff member using the
requirements should describe system shall be uniquely
the system services in detail. identified by his or her 8-digit
employee number.
 Requirements
Imprecision

• Problems arise when functional requirements are not precisely

stated. Ambiguous requirements may be interpreted in different
ways by developers and users.
“A user shall be able to search the appointments lists for all
clinics.”
• 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
• 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.

Because of system and environmental complexity, it is impossible

to produce a complete and consistent requirements document.
Bad Requirement: Vague, lacks detail, Good Requirement: Detailed, measurable,
and can lead to misunderstandings and clear, ensuring that all stakeholders
and misalignment in project goals. have a precise understanding of the
system's performance needs and enabling
effective design and testing.
 Let's consider a scenario where we are
defining requirements for an online bookstore.
Good Req: “The system must support up to
10,000 concurrent users with a response
time of less than 2 seconds per page load Bad Req: : "The system should be able to
during peak hours.” handle many users."

Trackable: We can measure the system's • Inconsistent : What does "many"

mean? This term is vague and can lead
performance against the 10,000 users and to different interpretations.
2-second response time. • Not Aligned: This doesn't specify how it
Clear: Specific numbers and conditions are aligns with user needs or business
objectives.
provided.
Necessary: Clearly outlines a performance • Incomplete: It lacks specifics about
what "handle" means—performance,
goal that meets expected user demand. security, or user experience.
Testable: We can test the system to see if it • Not Implementable: Without details,
meets the 10,000 user and 2-second developers can't design or test the
system properly.
response criteria.
• Incomprehensible: Different
Complete: It includes all necessary details stakeholders might interpret "many"
for implementation and testing. and "handle" differently.
Comprehensible: Easy to understand and
leaves little room for misinterpretation
Sample List of Words to Avoid Sample List of Words to Use
These words create a false sense
of consensus on requirements
and are not testable.
Update, Edit, View,
Maintain, Manage,
Display, Compare,
Administer, Handle,
Calculate, Determine,
Process, Support,
Print, Sort, Filter, Add,
Facilitate, Track, Review,
Confirm, Record, Enter,
Monitor, Coordinate,
Attach, Authenticate,
Analyze
Adjust, Allocate, List,
Notify, Request, Access,
Import, Export, Merge,
Refresh, Record, Send,
Receive
Non-Functional
Requirements

• These define system properties and constraints e.g.

reliability, response time and storage requirements.
Constraints are I/O device capability, system
representations, etc.
• Process requirements may also be specified mandating a
particular IDE, programming language or development
method.
• Non-functional requirements may be more critical than
functional requirements. If these are not met, the system
may be useless.
Types of Non-Functional
Requirements
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.
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.
 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)
 Property Measure
Speed Processed transactions/second
User/event response time
Screen refresh time
Size Mbytes
Number of R O M chips
Metrics for Ease of use Training time
Specifying Number of help frames
Reliability Mean time to failure
Nonfunctional Probability of unavailability
Requirements 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
Requirements
Engineering Processes

Copyright © 2016, 2011, 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Requirements Engineering Processes

• The processes used for R E vary widely depending on the

application domain, the people involved and the
organisation developing the requirements.
• However, there are a number of generic activities common
to all processes
• Requirements elicitation;
• Requirements analysis;
• Requirements validation;
• Requirements management.
• In practice, RE is an iterative activity in which these
processes are interleaved.
A Spiral View of
the
Requirements
Engineering
Process
Requirements Elicitation and Analysis

• Sometimes called requirements elicitation or requirements discovery.

• Involves technical staff working with customers to find out about the
application domain, the services that the system should provide and
the system’s operational constraints.
• May involve end-users, managers, engineers involved in maintenance,
domain experts, trade unions, etc. These are called stakeholders.
Requirements Elicitation

• 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.
• Stages include:
• Requirements discovery,
• Requirements classification and organization,
• Requirements prioritization and negotiation,
• Requirements specification.
Problems of Requirements Elicitation

• Stakeholders don’t know what they really want.

• Stakeholders express requirements in their own terms.
• Different stakeholders may have conflicting requirements.
• Organisational and political factors may influence the system
requirements.
• The requirements change during the analysis process. New
stakeholders may emerge and the business environment may change.
The
Requirements
Elicitation and
Analysis
Process
Process Activities

• Requirements discovery
• Interacting with stakeholders to discover their requirements.
Domain requirements are also discovered at this stage.
• Requirements classification and organisation
• Groups related requirements and organises them into coherent
clusters.
• Prioritisation and negotiation
• Prioritising requirements and resolving requirements conflicts.
• Requirements specification
• Requirements are documented and input into the next round of the
spiral.
Requirements Discovery

• 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.
• Systems normally have a range of stakeholders.
Interviewing

• Formal or informal interviews with stakeholders are part of most RE

processes.
• Types of interview
• Closed interviews based on pre-determined list of questions
• Open interviews where various issues are explored with
stakeholders.
• Effective interviewing
• Be open-minded, avoid pre-conceived ideas about the
requirements and are willing to listen to stakeholders.
• Prompt the interviewee to get discussions going using a
springboard question, a requirements proposal, or by working
together on a prototype system.
Interviews in Practice

• 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.
Problems with Interviews

• 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.
Ethnography

• A social scientist spends a considerable time observing and analysing

how people actually work.
• People do not have to explain or articulate their work.
• Social and organisational factors of importance may be observed.
• Ethnographic studies have shown that work is usually richer and more
complex than suggested by simple system models.
Scope of Ethnography

• Requirements that are derived from the way that people actually work
rather than the way I which process definitions suggest that they
ought to work.
• Requirements that are derived from cooperation and awareness of
other people’s activities.
• 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.
Focused Ethnography

• Developed in a project studying the air traffic control process

• Combines ethnography with prototyping
• Prototype development results in unanswered questions which focus
the ethnographic analysis.
• The problem with ethnography is that it studies existing practices
which may have some historical basis which is no longer relevant.
Ethnography and Prototyping
for Requirements Analysis
Requirements Specification

• The process of writing donw the user and system requirements in a

requirements document.
• 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.
 Notation Description
Natural The requirements are written using numbered sentences
language in natural language. Each sentence should express one
requirement.
Structured The requirements are written in natural language on a
natural standard form or template. Each field provides
language information about an aspect of the requirement.
Design This approach uses a language like a programming
description language, but with more abstract features to specify the
languages requirements by defining an operational model of the
system. This approach is now rarely used although it can
be useful for interface specifications.
Graphical Graphical models, supplemented by text annotations,
notations are used to define the functional requirements for the
system; UML use case and sequence diagrams are
commonly used.
Ways of Mathematical These notations are based on mathematical concepts
Writing a specifications such as finite-state machines or sets. Although these
unambiguous specifications can reduce the ambiguity in
System a requirements document, most customers don’t
Requirements understand a formal specification. They cannot check
Specification 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 may be 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 may be a domain requirement.
• This may be 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 amalgamation
• Several different requirements may be expressed
together.
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.
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.
Use Cases
• Use-cases are a kind of scenario that are included in the
UML.
• Use cases identify the actors in an interaction and which
describe the interaction itself.
• A set of use cases should describe all possible interactions
with the system.
• High-level graphical model supplemented by more detailed
tabular description (see Chapter 5).
• U M L sequence diagrams may be used to add detail to use-
cases by showing the sequence of event processing in the
system.
The Software Requirements
Document

• 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.
Users of a
Requirements
Document
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. I E E E 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 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, 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 nonfunctional requirements in more
requirements detail. If necessary, further detail may also be added to the nonfunctional
specification requirements. 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.
Requirements Validation

• 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.
Requirements Checking

• 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?
Requirements Validation Techniques

• Requirements reviews
• Systematic manual analysis of the requirements.
• Prototyping
• Using an executable model of the system to check requirements.
Covered in Chapter 2.
• Test-case generation
• Developing tests for requirements to check testability.
Requirements Reviews

• 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.
Review Checks

• Verifiability
• Is the requirement realistically testable?
• Comprehensibility
• Is the requirement properly understood?
• Traceability
• Is the origin of the requirement clearly stated?
• Adaptability
• Can the requirement be changed without a large impact on other
requirements?
 Requirements
Change
Copyright © 2016, 2011, 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
 Changing Requirements

• The business and technical environment of the system always changes after
installation.
• New hardware may be introduced, it may be necessary to interface the system
with other systems, business priorities may change (with consequent changes in
the system support required), and new legislation and regulations may be
introduced that the system must necessarily abide by.
• The people who pay for a system and the users of that system are rarely the same
people.
• System customers impose requirements because of organizational and
budgetary constraints. These may conflict with end-user requirements and, after
delivery, new features may have to be added for user support if the system is to
meet its goals.
• Large systems usually have a diverse user community, with many users having
different requirements and priorities that may be conflicting or contradictory.
• The final system requirements are inevitably a compromise between them and,
with experience, it is often discovered that the balance of support given to
different users has to be changed.
Requirements
Evolution
Requirements Management

• 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.
Requirements Management Planning

• Establishes the level of requirements management detail that is required.

• 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. I discuss this process in more detail in
the following section.
• 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.
 Requirements Change Management

• 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.