Volere Requirements Specification Template

Volere
Requirements
Specification Template
Edition 18—2016
by James Robertson & Suzanne Robertson
principals of the Atlantic Systems Guild
The Volere Requirements Specification Template is intended
for use as a basis for discovering and communicating your
requirements. The template provides sections for each of
the requirements types appropriate to today's software
systems. You may download the template from the Volere
site and adapt it to your requirements process and
requirements tool. The template is process independent and
can be used by Agile, Traditional, and Outsourced projects.
The template can be used with Requisite, DOORS, Caliber
RM, IRqA, Yonix and any other automated tools you are
using see http://www.volere.co.uk/tools.htm
The template may not be sold, or used for commercial gain
or purposes other than as a basis for a requirements
specification without prior written permission. The
Template may be modified or copied and used for your
requirements work, provided you include the following
copyright notice in any document that uses any part of this
template:
We acknowledge that this document uses material from the
Volere Requirements Specification Template, copyright ©
1995 – 2016 the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited.

Volere.........................................................................................................................6
Requirements Types....................................................................................................7
Testing Requirements..................................................................................................7
Atomic Requirements Shell..........................................................................................8
1. The Purpose of the Project.....................................................................................10
1a. The User Business or Background of the Project Effort................................................................10
1b. Goals of the Project...................................................................................................................................... 10
2. The Stakeholders...................................................................................................11
2a. The Client......................................................................................................................................................... 11
2b. The Customer................................................................................................................................................. 12
2c. Other Stakeholders....................................................................................................................................... 12
2d. The Hands-On Users of the Product...................................................................................................... 14
2e. Personas........................................................................................................................................................... 14
2f. Priorities Assigned to Users...................................................................................................................... 14
2g. User Participation......................................................................................................................................... 15
2h. Maintenance Users and Service Technicians.....................................................................................15
3. Constraints............................................................................................................15
3a. Solution Constraints.................................................................................................................................... 15
3b. Implementation Environment of the Current System...................................................................15
3c. Partner or Collaborative Applications.................................................................................................. 16
3d. Off-the-Shelf Software................................................................................................................................ 16
3e. Anticipated Workplace Environment................................................................................................... 16
3f. Schedule Constraints.................................................................................................................................... 16
3g. Partner or Collaborative Applications.................................................................................................. 16
3h. Enterprise Constraints............................................................................................................................... 16
4. Naming Conventions and Terminology...................................................................17
4a. Glossary of All Terms, Including Acronyms, Used by Stakeholders Involved in the Project
..................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
5. Relevant Facts and Assumptions............................................................................17
5a. Relevant Facts................................................................................................................................................ 17
5b. Business Rules............................................................................................................................................... 17
5c. Assumptions................................................................................................................................................... 18
6. The Scope of the Work...........................................................................................18
6a. The Current Situation.................................................................................................................................. 18
Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
Volere Template V18 /2

6b. The Context of the Work............................................................................................................................ 18
6c. Work Partitioning......................................................................................................................................... 19
6d. Specifying a Business Use Case (BUC)................................................................................................. 20
7. Business Data Model and Data Dictionary..............................................................20
7a. Business Data Model.................................................................................................................................... 20
7b. Data Dictionary.............................................................................................................................................. 22
8. The Scope of the Product.......................................................................................24
8a. Product Boundary........................................................................................................................................ 24
8b. Product Use Case Table.............................................................................................................................. 25
8c. Individual Product Use Cases................................................................................................................... 27
9. Functional Requirements......................................................................................27
9a. Functional Requirements.......................................................................................................................... 27
Non-functional Requirements....................................................................................30
10. Look and Feel Requirements................................................................................30
10a. Appearance Requirements..................................................................................................................... 30
10b. Style Requirements................................................................................................................................... 30
11. Usability and Humanity Requirements.................................................................31
11a. Ease of Use Requirements...................................................................................................................... 31
11b. Personalization and Internationalization Requirements..........................................................31
11c. Learning Requirements........................................................................................................................... 32
11d. Understandability and Politeness Requirements.........................................................................32
11e. Accessibility Requirements.................................................................................................................... 32
11f. Convenience Requirements.................................................................................................................... 32
12. Performance Requirements.................................................................................32
12a. Speed and Latency Requirements....................................................................................................... 32
12b. Safety-Critical Requirements................................................................................................................ 32
12c. Precision or Accuracy Requirements................................................................................................. 33
12d. Reliability and Availability Requirements....................................................................................... 33
12e. Robustness or Fault-Tolerance Requirements...............................................................................33
12f. Capacity Requirements............................................................................................................................. 33
12g. Scalability or Extensibility Requirements........................................................................................33
12h. Longevity Requirements......................................................................................................................... 33
13. Operational and Environmental Requirements....................................................33
13a. Expected Physical Environment........................................................................................................... 33
13b. Wider Environment Requirements.................................................................................................... 33
Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
Volere Template V18 /3

13c. Release Requirements.............................................................................................................................. 34
13d. Backwards Compatibility Requirements......................................................................................... 34
14. Maintainability and Support Requirements..........................................................34
14a. Maintenance Requirements................................................................................................................... 34
14b. Supportability Requirements................................................................................................................ 34
14c. Adaptability Requirements.................................................................................................................... 34
15. Security Requirements.........................................................................................34
15a. Access Requirements................................................................................................................................ 34
15b. Integrity Requirements........................................................................................................................... 35
15c. Privacy Requirements.............................................................................................................................. 35
15d. Audit Requirements.................................................................................................................................. 35
16. Cultural Requirements.........................................................................................35
16a. Cultural Requirements............................................................................................................................. 35
17. Compliance Requirements...................................................................................35
17a. Legal Compliance Requirements.......................................................................................................... 35
17b. Standards Compliance Requirements............................................................................................... 36
Project Issues.............................................................................................................36
18. Open Issues..........................................................................................................36
Solutions...................................................................................................................36
19a. Ready-Made Products.............................................................................................................................. 36
19b. Reusable Components.............................................................................................................................. 36
19c. Products That Can Be Copied................................................................................................................ 36
20. New Problems......................................................................................................37
20a. Effects on the Current Environment................................................................................................... 37
20b. Effects on the Installed Systems.......................................................................................................... 37
20c. Potential User Problems.......................................................................................................................... 37
20d. Limitations in the Anticipated Implementation Environment That May Inhibit the New
Product..................................................................................................................................................................... 37
20e. Follow-Up Problems.................................................................................................................................. 37
21. Tasks....................................................................................................................37
21a. Project Planning.......................................................................................................................................... 37
21b. Planning of the Development Phases................................................................................................. 38
22. Migration to the New Product..............................................................................38
22a. Requirements for Migration to the New Product..........................................................................38
22b. Data That Has to Be Modified or Translated for the New Product.........................................38
Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
Volere Template V18 /4

23. Risks....................................................................................................................38
24. Costs....................................................................................................................38
25. User Documentation and Training........................................................................38
‘25a. User Documentation Requirements.................................................................................................. 38
25b. Training Requirements........................................................................................................................... 39
26. Waiting Room......................................................................................................39
27. Ideas for Solutions.......................................................................................................39
The Volere Requirements Knowledge Model (included with
the download of this template) shows the formal structure of
the template and the cross-references between the
components in the above table of contents.
Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
Volere Template V18 /5

Volere
Volere is the result of many years of practice, consulting,
and research in requirements engineering and business
analysis. We have packaged our experience in the form of a
generic requirements process, requirements training,
requirements consultancy, requirements audits, a variety of
downloadable guides and articles, a requirements
knowledge model and this requirements template. We also
provide requirements specification-writing services.
The first edition of the Volere Requirements Specification
Template was released in 1995. Since then, organizations
from all over the world have saved time and money by using
the template as the basis for discovering, organizing, and
communicating their requirements.
The Volere web site www.volere.co.uk contains articles
about the Volere techniques, experiences of Volere users
and case studies, requirements tools, and other information
useful to requirements practitioners.
The Volere requirements process is described in the book
Mastering the Requirements Process—Third Edition by
Suzanne Robertson and James Robertson, Addison-Wesley,
2012. ISBN 0-321-81574-2
Kindle and Safari editions are also available.
For more about managing requirements see Requirements
Led Project Management by Suzanne Robertson and James
Robertson, Addison-Wesley, 2005. ISBN 0-321-65904-X
Updates to this template and instructions for downloading
are available at http://www.volere.co.uk
Public seminars on Volere are run on a regular basis in
Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. For
a schedule of courses, refer to www.volere.co.uk.
In-house courses are run on request.
Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
Volere Template V18 /6

Video course on the Volere requirements process:
Requirements the Masterclass is available at
http://www.informit.com/store/requirements-the-
masterclass-livelessons-traditional-9780134189758
Requirements Types
For ease of use, we have found it convenient to think of
requirements as belonging to a type. There are two reasons
for the type: as an aid to discovering the requirements and
to be able to group the requirements that are relevant to a
specific expert specialty. Sometimes you might find it
necessary to assign more than one type to a requirement.
Functional Requirements are the fundamental or essential
subject matter of the product. They describe what the
product has to do, the rules that it has to carry out or what
processing actions it must take.
Non-functional Requirements are the properties that the
functions must have, such as performance and usability. Do
not be deterred by the unfortunate name for this kind of
requirements, they are as important as the functional
requirements for the product’s success.
Constraints impose restrictions on the chosen solution.
These restrictions might apply to the whole project, for
example: budget, time, skills. Other constraints relate to the
technology to be used like: the product might have to be
implemented in the hand-held device being given to major
customers, or it might have to use the existing servers and
desktop computers, or any other hardware, software, or
business practice that must be conformed with and cannot
be changed.
Project Drivers are the business-related forces. For
example, the purpose of the project is a project driver, as
are all of the stakeholders—each for different reasons.
Project Issues define the conditions under which the project
will be done. Our reason for including them as part of the
Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
Volere Template V18 /7

requirements is to present a coherent picture of all factors
that contribute to the success or failure of the project and to
illustrate how managers can use requirements knowledge as
input to help to manage a project.
Testing Requirements
The Volere philosophy is to start testing requirements as
soon as you start writing them. You make a requirement
testable by adding its fit criterion. This fit criterion
measures the requirement, making it possible to determine
whether a given solution fits the requirement. If a fit
criterion cannot be found for a requirement, then the
requirement is either ambiguous or poorly understood. All
requirements can be measured, and all should carry a fit
criterion.
Copyright © the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited
Volere Template V18 /8