Scenario for Illustrating Different Requirement Types
ABC Inc. has experienced phenomenal growth over the last three years due to mergers
and acquisitions of companies that are similar or complementary in nature. To enhance
ABC’s competitive position, management has decided to develop a Human Resources
(HR) system to identify employees with needed skills and training across all company
locations.
ABC management has determined that developing a new comprehensive HR system
across the company would be cost prohibitive. Instead management wishes to leave the
legacy systems of each acquired company in place and integrate the data contained in
them into a Information Technology (IT) framework. The framework will consist of an
IT infrastructure at headquarters, the public telephone network, and communications
equipment at each company location necessary to support the framework processes.
The framework, code named SATURN for Skills And Training Unified Referral
Network, will not replace any of the legacy systems of the individual companies that
ABC has acquired. The presentation of the new company-wide employee data will be
transparent to the local user. In other words, each local user will see the selected
employee information for the whole company; in the same format as it would be if stored
locally on their own legacy system.
In addition, SATURN will be able to determine whether all legacy systems were
available at the time a query were made. Should a particular legacy system be
unavailable for any reason, the user would be notified so that a query at a later time could
be made. Each query should be complete and all available information returned to the
user within one minute. The SATURN system should be able to support up to 20
concurrent users without any degradation of performance.
The following tables provide examples of requirement types for development of the
SATURN system. Table 4.1 provides requirement examples for the hardware/software
requirements view shown in Figure 4.1. Table 4.2 provides examples for the more
detailed context described in Figure 4.2. Table 4.3 provides examples from the total
requirements taxonomy view described in Figure 4.3. Finally Table 4.4 provides
examples for the requirements analyst view of requirements described in Figure 4.4.
Table 4.1 Hardware/Software Requirements View Examples.
Hardware Requirements
Performance
The SATURN system shall complete all
retrievals and display the requested
information, within one minute of the user
entering the query .
Interface Requirement
Specialty Engineering Requirement
Environmental Requirement
Software Requirements
Functional Requirement
Non-Functional Requirement
Up to 20 concurrent users may use the
SATURN system without any degradation
of response time.
The SATURN system shall operate through
a commercially available browser such as
Internet Explorer or Netscape.
The SATURN system shall run on
commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware
using the Microsoft Windows Operating
System.
The SATURN system shall operate on
single phase commercially available power
with a line voltage in the range of 110 volts
plus or minus 20 volts AC.
The SATURN system shall retrieve basic
identifying information for all employees
meeting the specified criteria.
The SATURN system will generate error
messages when a query fails to run to
completion or a legacy system is not
responding within the allotted time.
Table 4.2 More Detailed Context Requirement Examples
Production Process Requirement
The SATURN system shall be available for
use by all HR representatives at each
company facility.
Product Requirement
The SATURN system shall retrieve basic
identifying information for all employees
who meet the pre-determined skills and
training criteria.
Test Process Requirement
Test HR records for verifying the
SATURN system will consist of a special
set of personnel records at each company
location specifically created with artificial
data.
Operational Process Requirement
The SATURN system will have the same
look and feel at each company location that
users of the system at that location are
familiar with, and therefore shall require no
training.
Table 4.3 Grady’s Total Taxonomy View Requirement Examples
Process Functional Requirement
The SATURN system shall be developed
to provide company-wide access to
employee skills and training information to
all HR representatives.
Process Interface Requirement
Skills and training information from all
company locations will be available to all
other company locations.
Process Specialty Requirement
To ensure complete skills and training
information are captured among the legacy
systems, a data model shall be created.
Process Environmental Requirement
SATURN shall be developed using Joint
Application Development teams (JAD)
composed of users (HR representatives),
developers, and system testers.
Process Performance Requirement
The SATURN system shall be ready for
system acceptance testing within 180 days
of project inception.
Product Functional Requirement
The HR user shall be able to retrieve
employee skills and training data by
predefined categories.
Product Interface Requirement
The SATURN system’s look and feel shall
be identical to each local legacy system.
Product Specialty Requirement
The SATURN system shall use relational
database technology.
Product Environmental Requirement
The SATURN system shall not require
additional HVAC capacity be installed at
any location.
Product Performance Requirement
The SATURN system shall operate with
97% reliability, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.
Table 4.4 Young’s Requirements Analyst View Requirement Examples
Customer Needs and Expectations
Examples
(Requirements Analysis Input)
Business Requirements
Managers need access to timely and
accurate data on personnel in order to meet
operational needs.
User Requirements
The user needs the capability to search on
Product Requirements
Environmental Requirements
System Requirements Specifications
(Requirements Analysis Output)
High-Level (or System Level)
Requirements
personnel across the entire company by
pre-defined skill sets.
Data formats shall be translated across
legacy system boundaries into the format
supported by the local user’s system.
There shall be no operational impact to any
user other than the impact on information
retrieval caused by larger population of
employees from which to select.
The SATURN system shall maintain crossreferences for information types contained
in the legacy systems. For example the
field called “education_level” in one
system is the same as “education” in
another.
The SATURN system shall convert data
from each legacy system to the data
expected by the local user. For example a
masters degree in one system might be
reflected in another system as “Grade 17.”
Functional Requirements
Non-functional Requirements
Derived (or Design) Requirements and
Design Constraints
Performance Requirements
Interface Requirements
The local user shall be able to search all
legacy systems in a predefined local,
regional, or national geographical area for
personnel meeting a specified skill-set.
The SATURN system shall make use of the
public switched network (PSN) and not
require dedicated lines of communication.
The SATURN system shall use Public Key
Infrastructure (PKI) communications
security.
The SATURN system shall support up to
20 simultaneous users without any
noticeable degradation of service.
The SATURN system shall return all
available skill-sets to the user within one
minute of initiating a search.
The SATURN system shall present a look
and feel consistent with each local office’s
legacy system.