Vu Re Lecture 01

Software Requirements
Engineering
(CS 708)
Dr. Ghulam Ahmad Farrukh

1
Introduction
Requirements form the basis for all
software products
Requirements engineering is the

process, which enables us to
systematically determine the
requirements for a software product
2
Software Requirements
Lecture # 1
3
Requirement
Something required, something wanted
or needed
Websters dictionary
There is a huge difference between
wanted and needed and it should be
kept in mind all the time
4
Software Requirements - 1
A complete description of what the
software system will do without
describing how it will do it is
represented by the software
requirements
5
Software requirements are complete
specification of the desired external
behavior of the software system to be
built
They also represent External behavior

of the system
6
Software requirements may be:
Abstract statements of services and/or
constraints
Detailed mathematical functions
7
Software requirements may be:
Part of the bid of contract
The contract itself
Part of the technical document, which
describes a product
8
IEEE Definition
A condition or capability that must be
met or possessed by a system...to
satisfy a contract, standard,
specification, or other formally
imposed document
IEEE Std 729
9
Sources of Requirements
Stakeholders
People affected in some way by the
system
Documents
Existing system
Domain/business area
10
Levels of Software Requirements
Stakeholders describe requirements at
different levels of detail
What versus How
One persons floor is another persons
ceiling
11
What Versus How
User needs What
How
Product space What
How
Actual products behavior What
How
Architecture/data flow What
How
Module specifications What
How
Algorithms What
How
Code
12
Importance of Software
Requirements
The hardest single part of building a
software system is deciding what to
build...No other part of the work so
cripples the resulting system if done
wrong. No other part is difficult to
rectify later
Fred Brooks
13
Examples of Requirements - 1
The system shall maintain records of
all payments made to employees on
accounts of salaries, bonuses,
travel/daily allowances, medical
allowances, etc.
14
The system shall interface with the
central computer to send daily sales
and inventory data from every retail
store
15
The system shall maintain records of
all library materials including books,
serials, newspapers and magazines,
video and audio tapes, reports,
collections of transparencies, CD-
ROMs, DVDs, etc.
16
The system shall allow users to search
for an item by title, author, or by
International Standard Book Number
The systems user interface shall be

implemented using a web browser
17
The system shall support at least
twenty transactions per second
The system facilities which are

available to public users shall be
demonstrable in ten minutes or less
18
Kinds of Software Requirements
19
Kinds of Software Requirements
Functional requirements
Non-functional requirements
Domain requirements
Inverse requirements
Design and implementation constraints
20
Functional Requirements
21
Functional Requirements - 1
Statements describing what the system
does
Functionality of the system
22
Statements of services the system
should provide
Reaction to particular inputs
Behavior in particular situations
23
Sequencing and parallelism are also
captured by functional requirements
Abnormal behavior is also documented

as functional requirements in the form
of exception handling
24
Functional requirements should be
complete and consistent
Customers and developers usually

focus all their attention on functional
requirements
25
Functional Requirements Example # 1
The system shall solve a quadratic

equation using the following formula
x = (-b+sqrt(b2 4*a*c))/2*a
26
The user shall be able to search either

the entire database of patients or select
a subset from it (admitted patients, or
patients with asthma, etc.)
27
The system shall provide appropriate

viewers for the user to read documents
in the document store
28
Every order shall be allocated a unique

identifier (ORDER_ID) which the user
shall use to access that order
29
The system shall allow customers to

return non-perishable items within
fifteen days of the purchase. A
customer must present the original sale
receipt to return an item
30
Comments on Examples
Notice the level of detail in different
requirements described above. Some
are very detailed compared to others
31
Notice the ambiguity in the
requirement, which uses the term
appropriate viewers
This requirement does not mention the

formats of documents and types of
viewers, which can be used
32
Notice the ambiguity in the
requirement for solving the quadratic
equation. The requirement does not
speak about the possibility when the
value of a is zero
x = (-b+sqrt(b2 4*a*c))/2*a
33
Incomplete and ambiguous
requirements are open to multiple
interpretations and assumptions
This can lead to the development of

poor quality, or faulty, software
products
34
Summary
Requirements form the basis of all
software engineering projects
Functional requirements capture the
behavioral aspects/functions of the
proposed automated system
Functional requirements are the
backbone of all software products
35
References
Requirements Engineering: Processes and
Techniques by G. Kotonya and I.
Sommerville, John Wiley & Sons, 1998
Software Requirements: Objects, Functions,
and States by A. Davis, PH, 1993
Software Engineering 6th Edition, by I.
Sommerville, 2000
Software Engineering 5th Edition, by R.
Pressman
36

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Software Requirements

Dr. Ghulam Ahmad Farrukh

Requirements engineering is the

They also represent External behavior

The systems user interface shall be

The system facilities which are

Functionality of the system

Abnormal behavior is also documented

Customers and developers usually

The system shall solve a quadratic

The user shall be able to search either

The system shall provide appropriate

Every order shall be allocated a unique

The system shall allow customers to

This requirement does not mention the

This can lead to the development of

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