A lot of books and blogs and experts tell us to use “The System shall…” when writing requirements. Read on to find out why that’s not a very good idea.
Tag Archives: ambiguous requirements
Posted in Communication, Requirements, Writing
Tagged ambiguous requirements, complete requirements, correct requirements, documenting requirements, incomplete requirements, incorrect requirements, logical requirements, managing data, requirements writing, unambiguous requirements, writing good requirements, writing requirements
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Posted in Communication, Requirements, Requirements gathering, Writing
Tagged ambiguous requirements, bugs, gathering requirements, holy grail, holy grail requirements, managing data, monty pythod, monty python, python, Requirements, requirements elicitation, software requirements, unambiguous requirements, writing requirements
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Writing Unambiguous Requirements
One of the ten big rules of writing a good MRD is writing unambiguous requirements. Ambiguity is a function of communication. The writing can be generically ambiguous, or ambiguous to the writer. A requirement could be precise in intent, but ambiguous in interpretation by the reader. Understanding our audience is as important as precision in language. We write unambiguous requirements because misinterpretation of requirements is the source of 40% of all bugs in delivered software.
Posted in Outsourcing, Product Management, Requirements, Software requirements specification, Writing
Tagged ambiguous requirements, business requirements documentation, clear requirements, good requirements, managing data, product requirements, requirements documentation, software requirements, unambiguous requirements, vague requirements, writing business requirements, writing requirements
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Writing Requirements Unambiguously
Writing requirements without ambiguity
This is one of the harder parts of writing good requirements. Marcus tells us to avoid it with a good example here. Jerry Aubin at Seilevel has written an outstanding post on the subject, The art and science of disambiguation. Jerry starts his post with a gripping example from Weinberg and Gause:
Outside reading: Enterprise versus consumer software
Cote’ recently posted a good comparison of the features of Enterprise Software versus Consumer Software. Although we may not agree with all the items in his lists (consumer software can have a login, and very often does have upgrade paths), we do appreciate the general classification. And we really like his insight:
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