Course 903: Specifications Writing Training - TONEX.com

Specifications Writing Training course addresses the techniques used to write, validate and verify requirements and convert them to technical design specifications. It gives attendees the basic tools necessary to write effective system design specifications.

Requirements are the foundation for building systems and software. They determine WHAT the system must do and drive the system development. Requirements are used to determine [verify] if the project team built the system correctly. The requirements development process identifies the activities needed to produce a set of complete and verifiable requirements. 

Requirements define the functions, performance, and environment of the system under development to a level that can be built:
Does the system do WHAT it is supposed to do? - These are Functional requirements.
How well does the system do its functions? - These are Performance requirements.

TONEX Specifications Writing Training provides the foundation to produce requirements for the system and sub-systems with set of activities . The systems engineering standard [EIA 632] defines “requirement” as “something that governs what, how well, and under what conditions a product will achieve a given purpose.”

Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will:

• Describe the way the system is intended to operate from the user’s perspective
• Describe Concept of Operations (ConOps)  process where user needs, expectations, goals, and objectives are described
• Understand how feasibility Study can produce the conceptual high-level design and requirements which can be used as a starting point for the project.
•  Demonstrate the ability to capture and validate requirements throughout the requirements analysis process.
• Learn how to conduct technical reviews, manage stakeholder involvement, and elicit requirements   

• Understand the relationships among all stages of the system life cycle.

• Learn how to create a Verification Plan to verify each system requirement
• Effectively produce design specification 
• Effectively perform Verification (Functional, Non-Functional, and Interface reqs.) and Validation (ConOps)

BASICS OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

• Definition of Common Terms
• System Definition and Design
• Design Methodologies 
• Master Plan Scope
• Concept of Operations (ConOps)  
• Preliminary Engineering
• Final Engineering
• RFP vs. Consultant Design vs. Design-Build

REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS

• Introduction to Requirements
• The Quality of Requirements
• Description of Requirements Writing (within the larger context of system development)
• Overview of Requirements Development 

Communication Techniques for Eliciting Requirements

• Stakeholder involvement
• Defining valid and meaningful needs
• Technical reviews
• Stakeholder feedback on the needs being collected
• Prioritization of the needs
• ConOps to System Requirements (generic)

REQUIREMENTS

• Purpose of Requirements  
• Levels of Requirements
• Understanding the different levels of requirements
• Performance requirements
• Conditions [e.g. environmental, reliability, and availability]
• Environmental and Non-Functional requirements
• System
• Sub system
• Component / task  

Types of Requirements 

•  Eight basic types
• Differences between requirements for hardware, software, services
• Functional  
• Non functional
• Performance, etc.
• Non-Requirements
    

STRUCTURE OF A WELL FORMED REQUIREMENT

• Definition  
• Capabilities  
• Conditions  
• Constraints 
• Operational Policies & Constraints
• Technical and Policy Constraints 
• Properties
• Interface  
• Human  
• Hardware  
• Software  
• Communications
• Functional analysis - needs analysis, operational analysis, use cases
• Design requirements analysis
• States & Modes analysis
• Workshop - States and modes analysis
• Requirements parsing
• Writing requirements vs. defining a system proposed is critical

SPECIFICATIONS VS. REQUIREMENTS

• Development of requirements
• Description of the current environment
• Stakeholders  
• Feedback to Stakeholders 
• Facilitation skills and techniques
• Transforming Requirements into Requirements Specifications
• How requirements specifications relate to requirements
• Requirements Flowdown in Specifications
• Specification Types and Formats
• Types of requirements specification
• Specification Writing
• Review of requirements quality
• Requirement structural template

SYSTEM TESTS (Verification and vALIDATION) 

• Test Plans  
• Test Procedures  
• User Acceptance Testing
• Requirements Verification Matrix  
• Traceability to user requirements (Validation against ConOps)
• Traceability to system requirements (Verification against System Specs.)
• Verification (Functional, Non-Functional, and Interface reqs.)  
• Validation (ConOps)
• System Integration 
• Standards and Policies

WORKSHOPS/EXERCISE

• Workshop 1
• Examples of good and poor requirements (group project)
• Requirements constructs
• Group presentations and discussions  
• Workshop 2- classifying requirements as functional or design
• Workshop 3 - writing a functionally oriented specification vs. a design oriented specification
• Analysis of Conops document
• Analysis of Test plans/procedures