Managing Software Requirements: A Unified Approach

Chapter 26. On Ambiguity and Specificity

Key Points

• The requirement "sweet spot" is the balance point of the greatest amount of understandability and the least amount of ambiguity.

• A learned skill, finding the sweet spot will depend on the team members' abilities, the application context, and the level of surety you must provide that your system works as intended.

• If the risk of misunderstanding is unacceptable, more formal requirements techniques may need to be applied.

Finding the "Sweet Spot"

One of the most difficult challenge we face in the requirements process is making the requirements detailed enough to be well understood without overconstraining the system and predefining a whole host of things that may be better off left to others downstream ...