Creating a Software Requirements Specification

Course #	EN05091
Date(s)	June 9, 2005
Times	8:30am - 4:30pm
Instructor(s)	Linda Shafer
Course Fee(s)	Register on or before May 11, 2005: $350.00 Register after May 11, 2005: $425.00 DIR Registration Fee $311.00
CEUs	0.7
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Course Description:

Getting the requirements correct is perhaps the most important part of a software development project. Once a software development team begins to collect the project requirements, it is critical that the project have a consistent format for maintaining and presenting them. This course describes the construction of the Software Requirements Specification (SRS), used for the ongoing maintenance and presentation of the project requirements. The SRS is critical to the entire software development life cycle. Not only is it the derivative document for the software design specification but also it is the base document for generating the validation and acceptance tests. Validation is the determination of whether or not the right product is built. Satisfying the requirements determines successful validation. The SRS is the mechanism for capturing those validation criteria - the system/software requirements.

Course Objectives:

At the completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Plan and estimate the task of developing an SRS during the requirements phase of a project.
• Develop a complete SRS for a software development project.
• Evaluate an SRS with respect to critical quality factors.
• Lay the groundwork for acceptance and validation testing plan development.

Prerequisites:

Participants should have software project experience and be familiar with the basic steps of their software development process.

Class Format:

The course consists of lectures and exercises. The exercises are intended for teams of 4-6 people. Teams are formed during the class and each team is selected to provide a variety of backgrounds and experience.

Outline:

This course is based on two international guidelines/recommended practices:

• IEEE Guide for Developing System Requirements Specifications, IEEE Std 1233, 1998 Edition
• IEEE Recommended Practice for Software Requirements Specifications, IEEE Std 830-1998

It is supported by the text:
Software Quality Project Management, Prentice Hall, 2002. Authors: Robert T. Futrell, Donald F. Shafer and Linda I. Shafer.

There are three basic SRS formats from which to choose:

1. A focus exclusively on the system's functional requirements as derived from the requirements elicitation and the initial requirements analysis.
2. If this is a user interface driven system or it is a proof of concept prototype, teams may want to include the external interface requirements with each functional requirement. In essence, each functional requirement is addressed with a matching interface requirement.
3. The final approach is to apply the quality checklists to each functional and external interface requirement. This is a quality-centric approach to developing the SRS and one that would be used in a mission critical or human reliability system to lay the groundwork for a formal set of requirements proofs.

Teams select one of the SRS templates, then focus on the series of software development checklists that IEEE 830-1998 provides. These are the quality characteristics an SRS exhibits:

1. Correctness
2. Unambiguous
3. Completeness
4. Consistency
5. Ranked for importance and/or stability
6. Verifiability
7. Modifiability
8. Traceability

Traceability, a key indicator of a useful SRS, will be used to tie together future project artifacts. A matrix will help determine if all of the acceptance tests have been addressed in a version of the delivered system.

Exercises:

Teams will select from the various SRS templates and tailor at least one of them to use with their case solution. Exercises are based on a hypothetical project provided by the instructor. As an option, with advance notice and some special preparation, the course can utilize real work projects provided by groups of participants.