Requirements specification
Requirements as user stories, non-functional requirements and acceptance criteria.
- Customers book a room online, and the front desk no longer keeps the calendar in a notebook.
- •Customer
- •Front desk
- •Administrator
- 1.As a customer I want to book a room for a chosen date, so that I do not have to call during front desk hours.
- 2.As the front desk I want to see the day's bookings on one list, so that I can get the rooms ready.
- 3.As an administrator I want to block the dates of maintenance breaks, so that nobody can book them.
- •Security: roles, sign-in, backups: to be filled in
- •Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 level AA: to be filled in
- •GDPR: personal data and retention: to be filled in
- •The front desk's Google Calendar (permissions still to be checked)
- •Booking a date that is already taken is impossible
- and 1 more point
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When to use the specification
A specification describes features, screens, rules and acceptance criteria in detail. It is usually written by the vendor or an analyst, together with the client.
If you want a fixed price for the project,
then a fixed price is possible when you can describe what has to work and how you will check it. If the description ends at buzzwords, you need a discovery phase first.
If you describe features with buzzwords, such as "admin panel",
then write them as user stories: who wants to do what, and why. Every vendor will price the buzzword differently.
If you have no technical background,
then don't describe database tables or button colours. A specification grows out of a brief, often in a paid analysis phase. App brief
If quality at acceptance matters to you,
then write down the acceptance criteria. A fixed price protects your budget, but not quality. Quality is protected by acceptance criteria and access to the code along the way.
What next: from the brief to acceptance
Each step leaves a document the next one rests on.
Brief
The client describes the problem, goal, users, priorities and constraints.
Analysis
The specification grows out of the brief, often in a paid analysis phase, with the vendor or an analyst.
Quote
A description of what has to work and how to check it allows a fixed price for a well-described stage.
Acceptance
The acceptance criteria say when a feature is done, and they protect quality.
Questions
First about what happens to what you type, then about the document itself.
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