The characteristics of a good SRS document and software requirements specifications include unambiguous, clear, consistent, modifiable, correct, and atomic requirements among others.
The characteristics of good specifications will define the implementation details in such a way that the software results in user-friendly systems that end users and customers enjoy using.
However, effective requirements capturing also enhances your chance of system success. Even worse, a review shows that ineffective requirements management could exceed budgets and timelines.
Instead, let’s reveal how to define good requirements with a set of characteristics integral to system requirements gathering and a good SRS document for project success.
Why Do You Need Quality Software Requirements?
Good requirements let you fully describe a system before it’s developed. Meanwhile, here are more advantages of capturing effective software requirements with the right eliciting requirement techniques:
- Enhanced communication and understanding between stakeholders and developers
- All stakeholders and developers work from a blueprint that can fully describe each need
- Improved efficiency throughout the software development process, with fewer reworks
- Better overall final software system quality, including user interface and functionality
- Good stakeholder satisfaction when the requirements meet the business goals
- Enhanced traceability and verifiability for individual requirements
- Everyone has common goals, objectives, and responsibilities
- Good requirements identify issues early to reduce risks in software development
- Better software project scope management and progress reporting
- Good requirements let developers test the software thoroughly before the launch
Effective Software Requirements Specifications Tools
Did you know you can use a requirements management tool called Requiment? One of its benefits is that you avoid mistakes by using the online tool with demo videos, a guided process, and requirements-capturing software. Learn more about our effective software requirements tool.
Good software begins with good requirements, which ultimately stem from error-free capturing and management. You can even create wireframes, use task-generation tools, or use paperless output reports to ensure you avoid any requirement specification mistakes.
Book a demo or sign up for a free trial to start using our requirements management software that allows you to master the most professional requirements, whether you need functional requirements, non-functional requirements, or user requirements for your software system’s SRS document.
Effective Software Requirements Specifications Criteria
Following quality characteristics can ensure your software meets business goals, user expectations, and even data security standards. All requirements should fit these criteria in an SRS document. The following characteristics are essential to most of the requirements you capture for a software system.
Atomic Requirements in Software Engineering
An atomic requirement can’t be broken into further details. Atomic requirements don’t miss their completeness. The specification can’t be translated into three user stories. For example, a login requirement can’t become an email, password, and login button specification.
Atomic requirements specification describes the requirements decomposed to their final state. These requirements prioritise and trace them more easily, and the development team focuses on small steps to develop products. Not all requirements are atomic, but the developers need these final specifications.
Effective Requirements Provide Clarity and Structure
Using clear language and logical structure in software requirements specification is an ideal criterion for a good requirement to ensure a common understanding among different stakeholders and engineers. Software engineering understands technical jargon, but stakeholders need clear definitions.
The structure of your requirements when writing an SRS document would follow a simple yet well-defined format. The SRS document acts like a communication tool to help developers design test cases and stakeholders approve the budget before software development. Clarity and structure are important.
Completeness and Detailed Requirements
Detailed requirements set a system up for success, which begins with completeness. A complete requirement provides comprehensive coverage of individual requirements and isn’t necessarily atomic. Completeness refers to requirements that define the steps, which lets you design a user story for each.
A good SRS document must include specifications to describe every step, input, and article for software development. All the requirements must be complete enough with a user story or even a special character. For example, a junior developer may not know what special character is used for passwords.
Consistent Requirements Are Effective
One of the top characteristics of good specifications is that individual requirements offer consistent software functionality and system performance for software engineers and project managers. Software engineering relies heavily on consistency to develop a software system’s functionality and features.
A consistent requirement gathering won’t contradict another specification on the SRS document. For example, a contradiction is when an SRS document suggests an email entry is mandatory but the user story says it’s optional. Good software has consistent requirements throughout the document.
Correctness Is Integral to Good Requirements
Correct requirements can also complete the specifications characteristics or effective software requirements before the development process commences. Often, engineers design prototypes or other user tests to gather feedback from end users about whether all the requirements are included.
Only your clients know what they want in a product, whether related to functional or non-functional requirements. Customers use prototypes to determine whether the requirements are correct. Alternatively, they’ll suggest more requirements or missing requirements.
Effective Requirements Are Design Independent
Consistent, complete, and unambiguous requirements set the design elements of a software system up for independent implementation. Good requirements must always be consistent. However, complete requirements also describe those engineers can prototype or design individually.
So, a good software requirements document won’t initially include implementation requirements. Instead, stakeholders review different design elements during a review process to choose the best one. However, these requirements must still be complete enough to collaborate under different choices.
Feasibility in Good SRS Documents
All the information you gather for a software system should be feasible in the software development life cycle. Software requirements specification without feasibility will result in a failed software system. Engineers should be able to implement the requirements within system capabilities and limitations.
Software engineering could help in providing quality characteristics for feasible specifications for the user interface or other functional requirements. Project managers often work with a technical team to ensure implementation details will work within the system’s constraints in software development.
Modifiable Requirement Specification
Important requirements are somewhat modifiable before you implement the developed software system. Good requirements also originate from being able to modify specifications on a system when change requests call for changes to an SRS document. Balancing flexibility and specificity is important.
Therefore, you must label and reference each requirement to ensure you can change them as software engineering or stakeholders insist. Also, each atomic or complete requirement must only appear once in the SRS document to ensure you update easily. Requiment helps modify requirements with ease.
Necessary or Relevant Requirements
Requirements prioritisation is essential to effective software requirements. You must determine whether new requirements are necessary before you implement any finalisations on an SRS document in such a way that you can define all the requirements essential to software development.
Assign implementation priorities to all the requirements documents to ensure you meet more characteristics of good specifications. Business requirements are the highest level, while user requirements guide the functional and non-functional requirements for a user-friendly system.
Testability Outlines Good Requirements
Important requirements specification also needs to be testable. Can programmers apply test cases on implemented requirements? Test cases can verify whether business goals and requirements are met. Test cases also define whether user needs are met before software development.
It’s one of the primary characteristics of a good SRS document. A user story allows programmers to design the tests and prototypes to determine whether the system functions as end users and different stakeholders intend or desire, which also focuses on different perspectives for improvement.
Traceability for Successful Projects
Projects and resources must be traceable, meaning requirements need to be traceable. Specific requirements verify the business and user needs, but a project manager must be able to trace the progress throughout the software development process.
A good SRS document follows a traceability matrix to ensure every requirement is accounted for before programmers develop the system. The traceability matrix will also include references, such as external documents, regulations, and compliance certificates that influence software functionality.
Unambiguous Requirements in Good SRS Documents
Unambiguous requirements allow a common understanding and welcome different perspectives for end users and the development team. A good SRS document has unambiguous requirements, meaning each specification has a single definition and understanding.
Everyone has a different perception, and it helps managers capture effective requirements by checking in with the development team, stakeholders, and clients. Often, managers use reviews and modeling techniques to see whether everyone perceives requirements the same way.
Verifiable Specifications Are Effective Requirements
You should be able to confirm functional and non-functional requirements for software system projects. Programmers do testing, but managers must also be able to verify progress and track changes, milestones, and any issues risking consistent specifications.
For example, you can’t list a requirement that a system must be easy to use because it isn’t measurable or quantifiable. Instead, a complete requirement is the specifications and techniques necessary to create logins for clients on e-commerce websites.
Other Traits of Effective Requirements
A good SRS document also has requirements with the following traits:
Abstract Specification – Requirements must avoid including any unnecessary implementation or abstract information in the details related to functionality.
Anti-Redundant Specification – Great requirements cover a specific feature or function only once to prevent requirements redundancy and problems with change management and traceability.
Summing Up the Characteristics of a Good SRS Document
Requirements specification for a software system in software engineering can set the entire team up for success while offering clients the best results. Specific requirements for a system must fit certain characteristics before engineers implement and design the code.
You’ll also avoid missing requirements while ensuring quality assurance. Ultimately, the software meets stakeholder expectations while SRS documents provide clarity and shared understanding. Ensure complete and effective software requirements when you sign up for our free trial or book a demo.
Quality Characteristics of Effective Software Requirements FAQs
What Makes Software Requirements Good?
New requirements and all the information you gather for software development projects should fit the following criteria:
- Include some atomic requirements
- Are clear, concise, and well-structured
- Must be complete and detailed enough
- Should be compatible with all other requirements
- Must be correct for the specific feature or function
- Could work with change because of design independence
- Feasibility with limits and capabilities must be prioritised
- Should be modifiable for change requests
- Must be relevant to customer or stakeholder needs
- Should be testable for the development team
- Must be traceable for progress and milestone planning
- Each must be unambiguous for shared understanding
- Requirements must be verifiable, measurable, and quantifiable
What Are the 4 Primary Requirements in Software Engineering?
The four primary quality characteristics of non-functional and functional requirements are completeness, correctness, conciseness, and confirmability. Each requirement must be complete, correct for customer and client needs, concise enough for understanding, and confirmable for testing.
What Are the 4 Characteristics of a Software System?
The four good characteristics of a software system include speed, performance, manipulation complexity, and versatility. Your system should respond well to inputs, perform as expected, provide data security, and be versatile enough to improve as requirements change.