Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Specification
for
<Project>
Version 1.0
Prepared by
<author>
Supervised by
<Supervisors Name>
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Table of Contents
Revision History ........................................................................................................................... iii
1. Considerations for producing a good SRS ............................................................................1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
Purpose ...................................................................................................................................... 12
Scope ......................................................................................................................................... 12
Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations ................................................................................ 13
References ................................................................................................................................. 13
Overview ................................................................................................................................... 13
Functionality.............................................................................................................................. 14
Usability .................................................................................................................................... 14
Reliability .................................................................................................................................. 15
Performance............................................................................................................................... 16
Supportability ............................................................................................................................ 16
Design Constraints .................................................................................................................... 16
On-line User Documentation and Help System Requirements ................................................. 17
Purchased Components ............................................................................................................. 17
Interfaces ................................................................................................................................... 17
Licensing Requirements ............................................................................................................ 18
Legal, Copyright, and Other Notices ......................................................................................... 18
Applicable Standards ................................................................................................................. 18
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Revision History
Name
Date
Version
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Software Requirements
Specification
Instructions:
1. Carefully read this document before writing your SRS document.
2. Clause 1, 2 and 3 of this document include the guidelines to produce a good SRS. It is taken
as it is from IEEE Std 830-1998 (IEEE Recommended Practice for Software Requirements
Specifications). Note, do not include these clauses in your SRS document.
3. Follow this template as it is for your SRS document and do not change page number, font
size, style, and line spacing etc. for the whole document.
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c) Performance.
What is the speed, availability, response time, recovery time of various software functions,
etc.?
d) Attributes.
What are the portability, correctness, maintainability, security, etc. considerations?
e) Design constraints imposed on an implementation.
Are there any required standards in effect, implementation language, policies for database
integrity, resource limits, operating environment(s) etc.? The SRS writer(s) should avoid
placing either design or project requirements in the SRS.
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Description: [Provide a brief description of the reason for and outcome of this use
case.]
Trigger: [Identify the event that initiates the use case. This could be an external
business event or system event that causes the use case to begin, or it
could be the first step in the normal flow.]
Preconditions: [List any activities that must take place, or any conditions that must be
true, before the use case can be started. Number each pre-condition. e.g.
1. Customer has active deposit account with ATM privileges
2. Customer has an activated ATM card.]
Postconditions: [Describe the state of the system at the conclusion of the use case
execution. Should include both minimal guarantees (what must happen
even if the actors goal is not achieved) and the success guarantees
(what happens when the actors goal is achieved. Number each postcondition. e.g.
1. Customer receives cash
2. Customer account balance is reduced by the amount of the
withdrawal and transaction fees]
Normal Flow: [Provide a detailed description of the user actions and system responses
that will take place during execution of the use case under normal,
expected conditions. This dialog sequence will ultimately lead to
accomplishing the goal stated in the use case name and description.
Alternative
Flows:
[Alternative
Flow 1 Not in
Network]
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4b. In step 4 of the normal flow, if the customer is not in the bank
network
1. System will prompt customer to accept network fee
2. Customer declines
3. Transaction is terminated
4. Use Case resumes on step 9 of normal flow
Note: Insert a new row for each distinctive alternative flow. ]
Exceptions: [Describe any anticipated error conditions that could occur during
execution of the use case, and define how the system is to respond to
those conditions.
e.g. Exceptions to the Withdraw Case transaction
Includes:
Special
Requirements:
Assumptions:
Notes and
Issues:
2a. In step 2 of the normal flow, if the customer enters and invalid
PIN
1. Transaction is disapproved
2. Message to customer to re-enter PIN
3. Customer enters correct PIN
4. Use Case resumes on step 3 of normal flow]
[List any other use cases that are included (called) by this use case.
Common functionality that appears in multiple use cases can be split
out into a separate use case that is included by the ones that need that
common functionality. e.g. steps 1-4 in the normal flow would be
required for all types of ATM transactions- a Use Case could be written
for these steps and included in all ATM Use Cases.]
[Identify any additional requirements, such as nonfunctional
requirements, for the use case that may need to be addressed during
design or implementation. These may include performance
requirements or other quality attributes.]
[List any assumptions that were made in the analysis that led to
accepting this use case into the product description and writing the use
case description.
e.g. For the Withdraw Cash Use Case, an assumption could be:
The Bank Customer understands either English or Spanish language.]
[List any additional comments about this use case or any remaining
open issues or TBDs (To Be Determined) that must be resolved. e.g.
1. What is the maximum size of the PIN that a use can have?]
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d) Consistent;
e) Ranked for importance and/or stability;
f) Verifiable;
g) Modifiable;
h) Traceable.
1.4.1 Correct
An SRS is correct if, and only if, every requirement stated therein is one that the software
shall meet. There is no tool or procedure that ensures correctness. The SRS should be
compared with any applicable superior specification, such as a system requirements
specification, with other project documentation, and with other applicable standards, to
ensure that it agrees. Alternatively the customer or user can determine if the SRS correctly
reflects the actual needs. Traceability makes this procedure easier and less prone to error.
1.4.2 Unambiguous
An SRS is unambiguous if, and only if, every requirement stated therein has only one
interpretation. As a minimum, this requires that each characteristic of the final product be
described using a single unique term. In cases where a term used in a particular context could
have multiple meanings, the term should be included in a glossary where its meaning is made
more specific. An SRS is an important part of the requirements process of the software life
cycle and is used in design, implementation, project monitoring, verification and validation,
and in training. The SRS should be unambiguous both to those who create it and to those who
use it. However, these groups often do not have the same background and therefore do not
tend to describe software requirements the same way. Representations that improve the
requirements specification for the developer may be counterproductive in that they diminish
understanding to the user and vice versa.
Sub-clauses 1.4.2.1 through 1.4.2.3 recommend how to avoid ambiguity.
1.4.2.1 Natural language pitfalls
Requirements are often written in natural language (e.g., English). Natural language is
inherently ambiguous. A natural language SRS should be reviewed by an independent party
to identify ambiguous use of language so that it can be corrected.
1.4.2.2 Requirements specification languages
One way to avoid the ambiguity inherent in natural language is to write the SRS in a
particular requirement specification language. Its language processors automatically detect
many lexical, syntactic, and semantic errors.
One disadvantage in the use of such languages is the length of time required to learn them.
Also, many nontechnical users find them unintelligible. Moreover, these languages tend to
be better at expressing certain types of requirements and addressing certain types of systems.
Thus, they may influence the requirements in subtle ways.
1.4.2.3 Representation tools
In general, requirements methods and languages and the tools that support them fall into
three general categories object, process, and behavioral. Object-oriented approaches organize
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the requirements in terms of real-world objects, their attributes, and the services performed
by those objects. Process-based approaches organize the requirements into hierarchies of
functions that communicate via data flows. Behavioral approaches describe external
behavior of the system in terms of some abstract notion (such as predicate calculus),
mathematical functions, or state machines.
The degree to which such tools and methods may be useful in preparing an SRS depends
upon the size and complexity of the program. No attempt is made here to describe or endorse
any particular tool.
When using any of these approaches it is best to retain the natural language descriptions.
That way, customers unfamiliar with the notations can still understand the SRS.
1.4.3 Complete
An SRS is complete if, and only if, it includes the following elements:
a) All significant requirements, whether relating to functionality, performance, design
constraints, attributes, or external interfaces. In particular any external requirements
imposed by a system specification should be acknowledged and treated.
b) Definition of the responses of the software to all realizable classes of input data in all
realizable classes of situations. Note that it is important to specify the responses to both
valid and invalid input values.
c) Full labels and references to all figure, tables, and diagrams in the SRS and definition of
all terms and units of measure.
1.4.3.1 Use of TBDs
Any SRS that uses the phrase to be determined (TBD) is not a complete SRS. The TBD is,
however, occasionally necessary and should be accompanied by
a) A description of the conditions causing the TBD (e.g., why an answer is not known) so
that the situation can be resolved;
b) A description of what must be done to eliminate the TBD, who is responsible for its
elimination, and by when it must be eliminated.
1.4.4 Consistent
Consistency refers to internal consistency. If an SRS does not agree with some higher-level
document, such as a system requirements specification, then it is not correct. (See section
1.4.1)
1.4.4.1 Internal consistency
An SRS is internally consistent if, and only if, no subset of individual requirements
described in it conflict.
The three types of likely conflicts in an SRS are as follows:
a) The specified characteristics of real-world objects may conflict. For example,
1) The format of an output report may be described in one requirement as tabular but in
another as textual.
2) One requirement may state that all lights shall be green while another may state that
all lights shall be blue.
b) There may be logical or temporal conflict between two specified actions. For example,
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1) One requirement may specify that the program will add two inputs and another may
specify that the program will multiply them.
2) One requirement may state that A must always follow B, while another may
require that A and B occur simultaneously.
c) Two or more requirements may describe the same real-world object but use different
terms for that object. For example, a programs request for a user input may be called a
prompt in one requirement and a cue in another. The use of standard terminology
and definitions promotes consistency.
1.4.5 Ranked for importance and/or stability
An SRS is ranked for importance and/or stability if each requirement in it has an identifier to
indicate either the importance or stability of that particular requirement.
Typically, all of the requirements that relate to a software product are not equally important.
Some requirements may be essential, especially for life-critical applications, while others may
be desirable. Each requirement in the SRS should be identified to make these differences
clear and explicit. Identifying the requirements in the following manner helps:
a) Have customers give more careful consideration to each requirement, which often
clarifies any hidden assumptions they may have.
b) Have developers make correct design decisions and devote appropriate levels of effort to
the different parts of the software product.
1.4.5.1 Degree of stability
One method of identifying requirements uses the dimension of stability. Stability can be
expressed in terms of the number of expected changes to any requirement based on
experience or knowledge of forthcoming events that affect the organization, functions, and
people supported by the software system.
1.4.5.2 Degree of necessity
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Non verifiable requirements include statements such as works well, good human
interface, and shall usually happen. These requirements cannot be verified because it is
impossible to define the terms good, well, or usually. The statement that the program
shall never enter an infinite loop is non-verifiable because the testing of this quality is
theoretically impossible.
An example of a verifiable statement is
Output of the program shall be produced within 20 s of event* 60% of the time; and shall be
produced within 30 s of event* 100% of the time.
This statement can be verified because it uses concrete terms and measurable quantities. If a
method cannot be devised to determine whether the software meets a particular requirement,
then that requirement should be removed or revised.
1.4.7 Modifiable
An SRS is modifiable if, and only if, its structure and style are such that any changes to the
requirements can be made easily, completely, and consistently while retaining the structure
and style. Modifiability generally requires an SRS to
a) Have a coherent and easy-to-use organization with a table of contents, an index, and
explicit cross referencing;
b) Not be redundant (i.e., the same requirement should not appear in more than one place in
the SRS);
c) Express each requirement separately, rather than intermixed with other requirements.
Redundancy itself is not an error, but it can easily lead to errors. Redundancy can
occasionally help to make an SRS more readable, but a problem can arise when the redundant
document is updated. For instance, a requirement may be altered in only one of the places
where it appears. The SRS then becomes inconsistent. Whenever redundancy is necessary, the
SRS should include explicit cross-references to make it modifiable.
1.4.8 Traceable
An SRS is traceable if the origin of each of its requirements is clear and if it facilitates the
referencing of each requirement in future development or enhancement documentation. The
following two types of traceability are recommended:
a) Backward traceability (i.e., to previous stages of development). This depends upon each
requirement explicitly referencing its source in earlier documents.
b) Forward traceability (i.e., to all documents spawned by the SRS). This depends upon
each requirement in the SRS having a unique name or reference number.
The forward traceability of the SRS is especially important when the software product enters
the operation and maintenance phase. As code and design documents are modified, it is
essential to be able to ascertain the complete set of requirements that may be affected by
those modifications.
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1.7 Prototyping
Prototyping is used frequently during the requirements portion of a project. Many tools exist
that allow a prototype, exhibiting some characteristics of a system, to be created very quickly
and easily. See also ASTM E1340-96.
Prototypes are useful for the following reasons:
a) The customer may be more likely to view the prototype and react to it than to read the
SRS and react to it. Thus, the prototype provides quick feedback.
b) The prototype displays unanticipated aspects of the systems behavior. Thus, it produces
not only answers but also new questions. This helps reach closure on the SRS.
c) An SRS based on a prototype tends to undergo less change during development, thus
shortening development time.
A prototype should be used as a way to elicit software requirements. Some characteristics such
as screen or report formats can be extracted directly from the prototype. Other requirements
can be inferred by running experiments with the prototype.
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4. Introduction
[The introduction of the Software Requirements Specification (SRS) should provide an
overview of the entire SRS. It should include the purpose, scope, definitions, acronyms,
abbreviations, references, and overview of the SRS.]
[Many different arrangements of an SRS are possible. Refer to [IEEE830-1998] for further
elaboration of these explanations, as well as other options for SRS organization.]
4.1 Purpose
[Specify the purpose of this SRS. The SRS should fully describe the external behavior of the
application or subsystem identified. It also describes nonfunctional requirements, design
constraints and other factors necessary to provide a complete and comprehensive description of
the requirements for the software.]
4.2 Scope
[A brief description of the software application that the SRS applies to; the feature or other
subsystem grouping; what Use-Case model(s) it is associated with; and anything else that is
affected or influenced by this document.]
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4.4 References
[This subsection should provide a complete list of all documents referenced elsewhere in the
SRS. Each document should be identified by title, report number (if applicable), date, and
publishing organization. Specify the sources from which the references can be obtained. This
information may be provided by reference to an appendix or to another document.]
4.5 Overview
[This subsection should describe what the rest of the SRS contains and explain how the
document is organized.]
5. Overall Description
[This section of the SRS should describe the general factors that affect the product and its
requirements. This section does not state specific requirements. Instead, it provides a
background for those requirements, which are defined in detail in Section 3, and makes them
easier to understand. Include such items as:
product perspective
product functions
user characteristics
constraints
requirements subsets]
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6. Use Case(s)
[This section contains an overview of the use-case model or the subset of the use-case model
that is applicable for this subsystem or feature. This includes a list of names and brief
descriptions of all use cases and actors, along with applicable relationships.
[Use case(s) must be in tabular format as given in Clause 1.3 of this document]
7. Specific Requirements
[This section of the SRS should contain all the software requirements to a level of detail
sufficient to enable designers to design a system to satisfy those requirements, and testers to test
that the system satisfies those requirements.
[Requirements description must be in tabular format as given in Clause 3 of this document]
7.1 Functionality
[This section describes the functional requirements of the system for those requirements which
are expressed in the natural language style. For many applications, this may constitute the bulk
of the SRS Package and thought should be given to the organization of this section. This section
is typically organized by feature, but alternative organization methods may also be appropriate,
for example, organization by user or organization by subsystem. Functional requirements may
include feature sets, capabilities, and security.
Where application development tools, such as requirements tools, modeling tools, etc., are
employed to capture the functionality, this section document will refer to the availability of that
data, indicating the location and name of the tool that is used to capture the data.]
7.1.1 <Functional Requirement One>
[The requirement description goes here.]
7.2 Usability
[This section should include all of those requirements that affect usability. For example,
specify the required training time for a normal users and a power user to become productive
at particular operations
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specify measurable task times for typical tasks or base the new systems usability
requirements on other systems that the users know and like
specify requirement to conform to common usability standards, such as IBMs CUA
standards Microsofts GUI standards]
7.2.1 <Usability Requirement One>
[The requirement description goes here.]
7.3 Reliability
[Requirements for reliability of the system should be specified here. Some suggestions follow:
Availabilityspecify the percentage of time available ( xx.xx%), hours of use, maintenance
access, degraded mode operations, etc.
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) this is usually specified in hours, but it could also
be specified in terms of days, months or years.
Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)how long is the system allowed to be out of operation after
it has failed?
Accuracyspecify precision (resolution) and accuracy (by some known standard) that is
required in the systems output.
Maximum Bugs or Defect Rateusually expressed in terms of bugs per thousand of lines of
code (bugs/KLOC) or bugs per function-point( bugs/function-point).
Bugs or Defect Ratecategorized in terms of minor, significant, and critical bugs: the
requirement(s) must define what is meant by a critical bug; for example, complete loss of data
or a complete inability to use certain parts of the systems functionality.]
7.3.1 <Reliability Requirement One>
[The requirements description goes here.]
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7.4 Performance
[The systems performance characteristics should be outlined in this section. Include specific
response times. Where applicable, reference related Use Cases by name.
capacity, for example, the number of customers or transactions the system can accommodate
degradation modes (what is the acceptable mode of operation when the system has been
degraded in some manner)
7.5 Supportability
[This section indicates any requirements that will enhance the supportability or maintainability
of the system being built, including coding standards, naming conventions, class libraries,
maintenance access, maintenance utilities.]
7.5.1 <Supportability Requirement One>
[The requirement description goes here.]
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7.9 Interfaces
[This section defines the interfaces that must be supported by the application. It should contain
adequate specificity, protocols, ports and logical addresses, etc. so that the software can be
developed and verified against the interface requirements.]
7.9.1 User Interfaces
[Describe the user interfaces that are to be implemented by the software.]
7.9.2 Hardware Interfaces
[This section defines any hardware interfaces that are to be supported by the software, including
logical structure, physical addresses, expected behavior, etc. ]
7.9.3 Software Interfaces
[This section describes software interfaces to other components of the software system. These
may be purchased components, components reused from another application or components
being developed for subsystems outside of the scope of this SRS but with which this software
application must interact.]
7.9.4 Communications Interfaces
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[Describe any communications interfaces to other systems or devices such as local area
networks, remote serial devices, etc.]
7.10 Licensing Requirements
[Defines any licensing enforcement requirements or other usage restriction requirements that are
to be exhibited by the software.]
7.11 Legal, Copyright, and Other Notices
[This section describes any necessary legal disclaimers, warranties, copyright notices, patent
notice, wordmark, trademark, or logo compliance issues for the software.]
7.12 Applicable Standards
[This section describes by reference any applicable standard and the specific sections of any
such standards which apply to the system being described. For example, this could include legal,
quality and regulatory standards, industry standards for usability, interoperability,
internationalization, operating system compliance, etc.]
8. Supporting Information
[The supporting information makes the SRS easier to use. It includes:
Table of contents
Index
Appendices
These may include use-case storyboards or user-interface prototypes. When appendices are
included, the SRS should explicitly state whether or not the appendices are to be considered part
of the requirements.]