Quality Consulting Firms: Software Requirements Specification
Quality Consulting Firms: Software Requirements Specification
Software requirements specification, sometimes called as a functional specification, is a product specification, requirements document and a system specification, although in different companies, these terms are understood in different ways. This document shall exactly specify the functions and features that should be available in the software, and the necessary restrictions on its use. The specification is used as the basis for planning project development and code writing processes as well as determining steps for testing the system and user documentation. It must contain a description of the system behavior under various conditions. Peculiarities of design, configuration, testing or project management set forth in the specification should correspond to the restrictions on development and deployment.
Quality consulting firms actively participate in providing software companies with relevant information relating quality improvement and acceleration of time-to-market.
Software requirements specification is necessary to different project participants:
- customers, marketing and sales staff want to have an idea of the final product;
- project managers calculate schedules, costs and resources based on the specifications;
- development team gets an idea about the new product;
- the 1th testing team creates test plans, the user options and procedures;
Software development quality assurance is crucial for the success of any project as it verifies the correctness of its development and compliance with the requirements specification.
- technical support and maintenance specialists get an idea of the functionality of each component of the product;
- documentation writers develop user guides and online help windows on the basis of the software requirements specification and user interface design;
- specialists responsible for staff training need to be provided with software requirements specification and user documentation for the development of training materials;
- staff engaged in the project legal party verifies that the product requirements meet the existing laws and regulations;
- subcontractors organize their work and bear legal liability in accordance with the software requirements specification.
Being the ultimate repository of product requirements, a software requirements specification should be clear and understandable, so that it does not involve the slightest room for different interpretations by developers and customers. If the necessary function or the quality is not included in the requirements specification you should not expect that they will appear in the final product. Quality control company is involved in ensuring that the development is performed in full compliance with the quality standards.
