[INSERT PROJECT NAME]

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATIONS

TEMPLATE
EXECUTIVE SPONSOR [INSERT NAME]
BUSINESS OWNER - [INSERT NAME]
PROJECT MANAGER [INSERT NAME]
ORIGINAL PLAN DATE: [INSERT DATE, SPELLED OUT]
REVISION DATE: [INSERT DATE, SPELLED OUT]
REVISION: [INSERT NUMBER]

<Project> System Requirements Specifications

REVISION HISTORY
REVISION NUMBER

DATE

COMMENT

1.0

August 14, 2007

Original DoIT PMO Document

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

Table of Contents
REVISION HISTORY............................................................................................ 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS.........................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 5
Purpose of This Document..................................................................................................5
Goals of the Project............................................................................................................. 5
System Scope..................................................................................................................... 5
Client, Customer and Other Stakeholders...........................................................................5
Users of the Product............................................................................................................ 6
ASSUMPTIONS AND OTHER RELEVANT FACTS......................................................6
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS.............................................................................6
Behavioral Requirements.................................................................................................... 7
Data Requirements............................................................................................................. 7
Integration Requirements................................................................................................... 7
User Interface Requirements............................................................................................... 7
Screen Layout Requirements.......................................................................................... 7
Reporting Requirements................................................................................................. 8
NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS.....................................................................9
Usability Requirements....................................................................................................... 9
Ease-of-use Requirements.............................................................................................. 9
Documentation Requirements........................................................................................9
Safety Requirements...................................................................................................... 9
Performance Requirements................................................................................................. 9
Availability Requirements............................................................................................... 9
Responsiveness Requirements.......................................................................................9
Reliability Requirements................................................................................................. 9
Capacity Requirements................................................................................................. 10
Scalability Requirements.............................................................................................. 10
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Requirements..............................................10
Security Requirements...................................................................................................... 10
User Security Requirements.........................................................................................10
Data Security Requirements......................................................................................... 10
Legal Requirements.......................................................................................................... 10
Notification Requirements............................................................................................10
Privacy Requirements................................................................................................... 10
Operational Requirements................................................................................................ 10
Hardware Requirements...............................................................................................11
Software Requirements.................................................................................................11
Network Requirements.................................................................................................. 11
Architectural Requirements.......................................................................................... 11
Data Management Requirements.................................................................................11
Production Support Requirements................................................................................12

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

Software Licensing Requirements.................................................................................12
OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS.................................................................................12
Functionality (behavioral)................................................................................................. 12
Use Cases..................................................................................................................... 12
Functional Analysis Model.............................................................................................12
Data Models...................................................................................................................... 12
User Interface Prototypes.................................................................................................. 12
REQUIREMENT CONSTRAINTS & DEPENDENCIES................................................13
Design Constraint.............................................................................................................. 13
Project Constraint.............................................................................................................. 13
REFERENCE MATERIAL......................................................................................14
ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY..............................................................................14

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT
The System Requirements Specification is the official statement of the system requirements
for customers, end-users, and software developers. It details what services the system should
provide, the system properties, and the constraints on the operation and development of the
system.

Note: The introduction section is largely populated from the data captured in the Business
Requirements Document. Review the Business Requirements Document content for any
additions and corrections and place the information in the fields below.

Give a brief description of the business problem being addressed, and the background to the
project. This includes:

A description of the work the user is currently doing and why it is not as good as
it could be.

A clear statement of the business opportunity

This can be copied from the project charter or agency documents used to secure funding.

GOALS OF THE PROJECT

Provide a short description of what the product/system needs to do, or how it will contribute
to the overall goals of the project. Having a short sharp goal will make the projects intent
clear to stakeholders and will aid in achieving consensus. The goal must provide direct
benefit, e.g., value in the marketplace, reduced operations cost, and/or increased value or
service to customers.

SYSTEM SCOPE
Give a brief description of scope of work for the project, which defines the boundaries of the
work and how it fits in the environment.

CLIENT, CUSTOMER AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS

List the following:

The Client The person/organization who pays for the product development

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

The Customer The person/organization(s) who will use the product, or who will
benefit by the existence of the product.

Other Stakeholders The people/organizations that have a vested interest in the

product

USERS OF THE PRODUCT

Detail all of the roles of people who will interact directly with the product. This information
may be available in the Organization Impact Analysis document.

ASSUMPTIONS AND OTHER RELEVANT FACTS

Include any assumptions that were made with regards to the analysis/decisions of the project,
its systems, and its requirements. Also include any other relevant facts regarding external
factors that have an affect on the system, but are not covered by the other sections.

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Functional requirements describe what the system must do (Behavioral Requirements), the
data manipulated by its functions (Data Requirements), and the user interaction with the
system (User Interface Requirements).

To ensure that each requirement has the necessary amount of information, use the
Requirements Information Collection Template to capture the required data for each
requirement. This template should be used for all types of requirements, and then the data
from that template placed in this specification document under the appropriate requirement
type section.

BEHAVIORAL REQUIREMENTS

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

Specify the behavioral requirements, which describe what the system must do. These
requirements should be supported by Use Cases, and thoroughly describe the behavior of the
system. Include requirements for how the system should behave under abnormal
circumstances, e.g., missing or invalid data.

DATA REQUIREMENTS
Specify the detailed data requirements for the system, including inputs, internal data, and
outputs. Include the sources and destinations of the data, as well as requirements regarding
frequency, latency (real-time, near real-time, daily) and volume. Identify data that must be
converted, replicated or shared across software components.

State the System Logical Data Requirements, Data Input files, Internal Data Files, and Data
Output files; State where the System Logical Data Requirements will be stored.

INTEGRATION REQUIREMENTS
Specify requirements for integration with other application systems. Identify the data items or
messages coming into the system and going out and describe the purpose of each. Refer to
documents that describe detailed application programming interface protocols.

USER INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS

State the detailed user interface requirements. Describe the logical characteristics of each
interface between the software system and the users. Define the software components for
which a user interface is needed. Details of the user interface design should be documented in
a separate user interface specification.
SCREEN LAYOUT REQUIREMENTS
Define what type of data and functionality should be included on each screen. Primary focus is on
content versus screen mock-ups. This may include sample screen images, any GUI standards or
system family style guides that are to be followed, screen layout constraints, standard buttons and
functions (e.g., help) that will appear on every screen, keyboard shortcuts, error message display
standards, and so on. If known, include requirements such as number of frames, browser-based,
etc.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Utilize the following table to provide additional definition for each reporting requirement

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

Report Type

Report
Name

Description
[In a couple of sentences
describe the information
that the stakeholder
audience would like to
obtain from this report]

[Examples:
Financial,
Operational,
Executive, etc.]

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Stakeholder
Audience

Frequency
[Example: Daily, weekly,
monthly, etc.]

<Project> System Requirements Specifications

NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Non-functional requirements consist of all properties that system must have. They are
categorized here as Usability, Performance, Security, Legal, Operational Requirements.

USABILITY REQUIREMENTS
EASE-OF-USE REQUIREMENTS
Document the requirements pertaining to the ease with which the user must be able to
interact with the system. Examples include the accessibility of information, high-level user
interface guidelines, and support for various levels of user expertise (e.g., novice vs.
power user).
DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS
Document the kinds of user documentation that will need to be produced. This should
include not only printed user manuals, but also any requirements for on-line help, tutorials,
and installation instructions.
SAFETY REQUIREMENTS
Document any requirements pertaining to possible loss, damage, or harm that could result
from the use of the system. Define any safeguards or actions that must be taken, as well as
actions that must be prevented. Refer to any external policies or regulations that govern
the systems design or use. Define any safety certifications that must be satisfied.

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS
AVAILABILITY REQUIREMENTS
Document the required availability of the system, such as hours of operation and expected
uptime requirements.
RESPONSIVENESS REQUIREMENTS
Document the required responsiveness of the system, such as online response times and
report deadlines.
RELIABILITY REQUIREMENTS
Document the required reliability of the system, such as mean time between failures.
CAPACITY REQUIREMENTS
Document the required capacity of the system, including CPU, memory, disk space, and
network bandwidth.

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

SCALABILITY REQUIREMENTS
Document the requirements for increasing the capacity of the system over time.
DISASTER RECOVERY & BUSINESS CONTINUITY REQUIREMENTS
Document the requirements for system behavior and operation in the event of a disaster;
Reference Business Continuity Document.

SECURITY REQUIREMENTS
USER SECURITY REQUIREMENTS
Document the user security requirements of the system, including details of the user
authentication and verification procedures to be implemented.
DATA SECURITY REQUIREMENTS
Document the security requirements for the system, including data transmittal and storage.
Include provisions for back-up and restore and off-site storage.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
Document any necessary legal disclaimers, warranties, copyright notices, patent notice,
trademark or other compliance requirements for the system.
PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS
Document requirements relating to the storage and use of personal data collected from
external users.

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
Specify the computing platforms on which the system will run, and the expected usage of
resources such as processor capacity, disk space, and memory. Describe the logical and
physical characteristics of each interface between the software and hardware components
of the system. This may include the supported device types, the nature of the data and
control interactions between the software and the hardware, and communication protocols
to be used. Include any constraints imposed on the system by the hardware environment.
The detailed analysis and the implications of these environmental constraints may be
included in the System Architecture Document.
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
Specify the connections between this system and other specific software components
(name and version), including databases, operating systems, middleware, tools, libraries,
and integrated commercial components. Describe the services needed and the nature of
communications. Include any constraints imposed on the system by the software
environment. The detailed analysis and the implications of these environmental constraints
may be included in the System Architecture Document.
NETWORK REQUIREMENTS
Specify the requirements associated with any communications functions required by this
system, including e-mail, web browser, network server communications protocols,
electronic forms, and so on. Specify the expected bandwidth requirements. Define any
pertinent message formatting. Identify any communication standards that will be used,
such as FTP or HTTP. Specify requirements for data transfer rates and message
synchronization.
ARCHITECTURAL REQUIREMENTS
Specify the architectural requirements and constraints for the system, such as architecture
design patterns, IT standards, and COTS applications. Requirements pertaining to the
portability of the system to other environments and the reusability of system components
should be captured here. Also consider maintainability requirements, specified in terms of
complexity analysis metrics thresholds.

DATA MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS

Specify the data management requirements, including data security (e.g., encryption), data
retention, data archiving and purging, and backup and recovery. Identify specific data
hosting requirements, such as operational data stores, data marts and data warehouses.
PRODUCTION SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS
Specify requirements pertaining to the monitoring and support of the system in
production. Include requirements for the behavior of the system in the event of hardware

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

and software failures (e.g., fail over requirements), instrumentation of the code to support
system management tools, audit logging, error reporting, and status reporting.
SOFTWARE LICENSING REQUIREMENTS
Specify any licensing enforcement requirements, or other usage restriction requirements.
Specify software maintenance and support provisions.

OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS
Complete the following sections as appropriate to model and/or clarify the operational concepts
and scenarios that include functionality, performance, maintenance, support, and disposal.

FUNCTIONALITY (BEHAVIORAL)
USE CASES
Capture the system behavior in Use Case format, where each Use Case represents one or
more system functions, triggered by a user or another system. The function is represented
by a sequence of events, which in turn return a clearly defined deliverable to the user.
Provide a list of Use Cases that were the basis for extracting various functional
requirements (system features) of the system that will become basis for the component
design and testing.
FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS MODEL
Create a graphical; object-based model based on the Use Case definitions (UML is the
recommended format.) Reference the UML models here.

DATA MODELS
USER INTERFACE PROTOTYPES
If the project team chose to utilize prototypes, include Screen layouts and other prototype
detail here.

REQUIREMENT CONSTRAINTS & DEPENDENCIES

Constraints and dependencies often impact and/or provide direction on how the system must
ultimately be developed. Dependencies are a form of constraint in that they can influence the
timing, content, risk, etc. for a project. Business Rules can also be a form of constraint and
need to be comprehended and captured here.

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<Project> System Requirements Specifications

Use the following table to detail and uniquely identify any conditions that restrict the
requirements to specifying a system that fits within the constraint for the project. There are
two types of constraints.

Design Constraints
o These are pre-existing design decisions that mandate how the final system must
look, or the technology that it must use.

Project Constraints
o These are constraints that cover things like budget, schedule, deadlines, etc.

DESIGN CONSTRAINT
ID

Constraint

C.1.1
C.1.2

PROJECT CONSTRAINT
ID

Constraint

C.2.
1

REFERENCE MATERIAL
Use this table to consolidate all reference documents, their filenames, and their location.

Description

Filename and Version

Requirements Trace
Document

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Location

<Project> System Requirements Specifications

Use Cases (Business

Requirements
Document)
System Architecture
Document
Etc

ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY

Include definitions for any unique symbols or notations that are used in the document, which
may cause confusion with the intended message, or may result in multiple interpretations of
some key terms. Define all the terms necessary to properly interpret the specification
document, including acronyms and abbreviations. Include definitions for terms that have
multiple uses, or unique State of New Mexico uses.

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