Checklist (Part 2): Requirements Specification Statement

Clients often shy away from writing a requirements specification statement, either because they perceive it as too much effort, or because they don’t know what it should entail. You can help clients by supplying them with a questionnaire which they should answer as honestly as possible. This will help both sides to establish a shared understanding and prevent miscommunication.

This is how a requirements specification statement questionnaire could look like:

Reason for Project

• What was the reason for the project initiation?
• Was there a specific issue that triggered it?
• If the answer to the last question is yes, how did you deal with a similar issue in the past?

Objectives

• Please define the project objectives. When would you consider the project a success?
• Please define the must criteria, the should criteria and the could criteria that the solution has to meet.
• Who are the important contact persons on the client’s end? Who are the decision-makers?

Product/Service use

• In what context will you utilize the product? (number of users, target audience, physical environment, service life)
• Which frameworks have to be considered? (specific organizational standards and methods, interfaces, time scale)
• Please differentiate the product from existing systems – what should the product not entail?
• Functional requirements
• Which functionalities does the project need to have at the end of the project?
• How should the product behave in case of malfunction?

Further Requirements

• Should the product be extendable?
• How should the maintenance for the product look like?

Scope of Delivery

• Besides the client, are there other subcontractors or project partners?
• If so, what will they deliver?
• What should not be delivered?

Project Plan and Milestones

• Which deadlines and milestones have to be met?
• Are there logical dependencies to other products or projects?

Open Questions

• How can the requirements specifications statement be edited (see change request)?
• Which decision-making authorities are there?
• Which issues still couldn’t be clarified and why?
• What can be done to resolve this?

Approval and Quality Requirements

• What are the strived for quality criteria?
• Which criteria have to be fulfilled before the project can be completed successfully?

 

(Text by Sabine Pfleger, translated by Linh Tran)