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Karl E. Weigers, Process Impact, Requirements, Requirements designer, Software Requirements Specifiction, SRS, Technology
The article Writing Quality Requirements was written by Karl E. Weigers, who is a consultant at the company Process Impact. The article starts off showing an example of how poorly written requirements documents can lead to confusion and rework for the requirement writers if they don’t know how to write quality and clear statements. Weigers explains the characteristics of a quality requirement statement, which are to be correct, feasible, necessary, and prioritized. He also explains how to write a quality requirement specification, by keeping the requirements complete, consistent, modifiable, and traceable.
Out of all the characteristics Weigers talks about throughout his article, I felt that being complete was really the most important characteristic he talked about. For me, being thorough and complete is something I attempt to do in everything I do. After reading this article, I can understand why it is important within a requirements specification as well. To write a good requirement specification, no information should be missing, to help you do this, focus on what the user would do rather than on specific system functions, doing this will allow you to cover all possible requirements instead of overlooking them. Another point that is important while going through writing the requirements, when you do not have the information you need mark it as To Be Determined or TBD so you know to come back to it when you have the information that is needed before you proceed with construction.
I think this is the most important part of requirements specification building, because completeness is key when writing requirements, you want to be able to produce a requirement that is easy to read, understand, and full of the information that is needed. As a professional I can see why this type of attention to detail is so important. Completeness is something you can use not only in writing requirements, but also in many other aspects of an IT professional career, from simple emails to writing intricate pieces of code. You want to portray yourself as a professional, and making sure everything you do is complete before you hand it off is very important.
Weigers, Karl “Writing Quality Requirements.” http://www.processimpact.com/articles/qualreqs.html