More About Software Requirements: Thorny Issues and Practical Advice

Chapter 12. Bridging Documents

It’s not unusual for a well-meaning requirements analyst to prepare a software requirements specification carefully and deliver it to the development team and the testers, only to have the recipients gripe about it. Here are some typical complaints:

• "This doesn’t contain enough detail. Now I have to do the analyst’s job to chase down this information. Either that, or I have to make my best guess."

• "There’s too much detail in the requirements. I didn’t need all this information, just a general idea. I already know what to build. I don’t even have time to read it. In fact, I don’t think I will."

• "This document contains too much design information. The analyst is trying to do the design job I’m supposed to do. These so-called ...