Defining the requirements of a system is a necessary process if the system is to satisfy the needs of its users. These needs are sometimes hard to discover though.

A basic set of requirements may be set out at the very beginning of the systems development but it is unlikely that these requirements will remain the same. It is important to note that the requirements of a system are often based around many stakeholders and not just the users. The people buying the product or system may not be the ones that will use it so their requirements may be more focussed on factors like price and whether it "does the job" whereas the users would be more concerned with ease of use and whether it fits in with their style of work for example.

System requirements can be gathered by asking people what they require and what they want. The systems designer can then go and observe current work habits and how these affect the requirements of the system. There are a set of different types of requirements that need to be discovered. Some of these are outlined below:

- Project constraints
- Business-related constraints
- Social / contextual requirements
- Functional requirements
- Non-functional requirements

Project constraints refer to how the system will have to exist within its real environment (e.g. what hardware will be available for it to run on / interact with). The business-related constraints refer to the constraints that are business related rather than related directly to the usability or functionality of the product. Business-related requirements would be those such as the cost or required delivery time for the product.

Social and contextual requirements relate to how the system / product should fit into the organisation and the work practices / behaviour of the individuals within the organisation. Functional requirements refer to what the system should be able to do whereas non-functional requirements are more qualitative and relate to factors such as performance or ease of use of the system.

Search for "Gathering and Defining System Requirements" on: Google | Kelkoo | Amazon | eBay (UK) | eBay (US)

Search for "Gathering and Defining System Requirements" on the rest of Computing Students: Gathering and Defining System Requirements