Requirements Content

• Are all the inputs to the system specified, including their source, accuracy, range of values, and frequency?
• Are all the outputs from the system specified, including their destination, accuracy, range of values, frequency, and format?
• Are all the report formats specified?
• Are all the external hardware and software interfaces specified?
• Are all the communication interfaces specified, including handshaking, error-checking, and communication protocols?
• Is the expected response time, from the user's point of view, specified for all necessary operations?
• Are other timing considerations specified, such as processing time, data-transfer rate, and system throughput?
• Are all the tasks the user wants to perform specified?
• Are the data used in each task and the data resulting from each task specified?
• Is the level of security specified?
• Is the reliability specified, including consequences of software failure, the vital information that needs to be protected from failure, and the strategy for error detection and recovery?
• Is maximum memory specified?
• Is the maximum storage specified?
• Is the maintainability of the system specified, including its ability to adapt to changes in the operating environment, in its interfaces with other software, in its accuracy, and in its performance?
• Are acceptable trade-offs between competing attributes specified, for example, between robustness and correctness?
• Is the definition of success included? Of failure?

Requirements Completeness

• Where information isn't available before development begins, are the areas of incompleteness specified?
• Are the requirements complete in the sense that if the product satisfies every requirement, it will be acceptable?
• Are you uneasy about any part of the requirements? Are some parts impossible to implement and included just to please your customer or your boss?

Requirements Quality

• Are the requirements written in user language? Do the users think so?
• Does each requirement avoid conflicts with other requirements?
• Are the requirements at a fairly consistent level of detail? Should any requirements be specified in more detail? Less detail?
• Are the requirements clear enough to be turned over to an independent group for implementation and still be understood?
• Is each item relevant to the problem and its solution? Can each item be traced to its origin in the problem environment?
• Is each requirement testable? Will it be possible for independent testing to determine whether each requirement has been satisfied?
• Are all possible changes to the requirements specified, including the liklihood of each change?