Practical Software Engineering for
Computational Scientists
Day 2 - Software Design
Requirements Capture Practical
(ANSWERS)
Geoff Cawood
Consultant, EPCC
Telephone:
Email:
+44 131 650 6715
geoffc@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Requirements Capture
Suppose a potential customer comes to you and says:
“I want the ability to provide extra lighting to different
parts of my desk depending on what I’m doing”
4Working in pairs, decide what questions you
would ask next if you were writing a requirements
document
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Requirements Capture
– underlying problem
• why do you need the lighting?
• what are you going to do on the desk?
– relating to functional goals
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do you need to light multiple parts of the desk at the same time?
is the direction the light comes from important?
could any part of the desk need the extra lighting?
what are the dimensions of the desk?
is the desk fixed or can it be moved?
how much space is there on/above the desk for lighting equipment?
– relating to performance goals
• how bright does the extra lighting need to be?
• what power sources are available?
• any restrictions on consumption / noise / heat?
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