RoseHulman Institute of Technology

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CSSE 497 Requirements Review

• Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
• Sriram Mohan
• 17 September.2008

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Outline

• Documents this term
• Use cases
• What about those requirements you cant do with a
  Use Case?
• Peer reviews
• Client Concerns

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What Documents do you need to produce?

• Project plan
• Problem statement
• Requirements document(s)
• Design spec
• Test plans
• Vision Document

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Project Plan

• Groundwork for your project
• Establishes common ground for your team
• Living document
• Process definition
• Schedule
• Configuration management plan
• Risk assessment

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Problem Domain
Needs
Features
Solution Domain
Requirements
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Problem Statement

• Function
• Form
• Economy
• Time

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A Good Process

• Examples
• http//www.rose-hulman.edu/class/csse/csse497-498-
  499/Examples/

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What is a Functional Requirement?

• Functional requirements specify particular
  behaviors of a system.

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What is a Use Case?

• A sequence of actions a system performs that
  yield and observable result of value to a
  particular actor

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Use Case Template

• Name
• Brief description
• Actors
• Basic flow
• Alternate flows
• Pre-conditions
• Post-conditions
• Special requirements

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Requirements that dont fit use case model

• Condition ltusergt ltshall should maygt
  ltactiongt
• Condition optional
• User external or internal, usually singular
• See RFC 2116 (http//www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt)
  
• Shall/Will/Must Mandatory, definition is an
  absolute requirement of the specification.
• Should Recommended, there may exist valid
  reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a
  particular item
• May Optional
• Action usually singular

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Examples

• The database shall use mySQL
• The LEDs shall refresh at a rate of 1 Hz
• The interface shall conform to 802.11b standards
• The system should support up to 100 users
• The installation should take under 30 minutes

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A good requirement is

• Singular
• Necessary
• Attainable
• Complete
• Correct
• Unambiguous
• Verifiable
• Traceable

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What is not testable?

• Designated amount of time
• Will make sure
• Appropriate response
• If possible
• When cost-effective

• Essentially
• About/approximately
• A few
• Quickly
• Slowly
• Average (adjective not noun or verb)
• Realistic

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Peer Reviews
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Client Concerns

• In person is best
• When thats not possible, telephone
• Last resort, email
• Follow up all meetings with minutes
• When needing a response, include the following
• I would appreciate your feedback by 8 AM Monday.
  If this isnt convenient for you, please feel
  free to propose a different time.
• Allows you to call at noon on Monday if you dont
  have any feedback.

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Vague Requirements

• Its really hard to design products by focus
  groups. A lot of times, people dont know what
  they want until you show it to them.
  BusinessWeek, May 25 1998 (Steve Jobs)
• Use pictures, charts, visuals
• Use static prototypes
• Make sure its obvious its a prototype

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Questions?