CSci 435/535: Homework 4

Requirements

Due Wednesday, Feb 9th by 11am

Work in pairs on this assignment. Feel free to use the forums to find a partner. Make sure the names of both students appear in the document. I will take a dim view on people who don't have a partner the day before the homework is due.

Summary

Beginning with the high-level requirement document created by the managers, create a detailed requirements document. Be sure to address:

• What are the functional objectives (features)?
• What are the nonfunctional properties?
• What are the environmental, scheduling, dependability, performance, and other requirements? What are the dependencies between requirements?
• Which are the highest priority requirements? Which are essential for success? (Rate each requirement with a 1-10 priority.)
• What are the non-requirements?
• In rare cases when there are multiple alternatives, provide enough information for the client to make a good decision. What are the benefits and risks?

To get an idea of the level of detail you should address, you may find it very useful to look at the requirements document from last year http://www.cs.wm.edu/~coppit/csci435-spring2004/billiards/devdocs/detailed_requirements.html.

Format

The managers have developed a template for all project documentation. You must use this template to get credit. In addition, you must submit valid html.

You should have sections corresponding to the types of requirements. You should also have an additional section in which you do some analysis of your requirements. How do the different requirements interact with each other? Are there dependencies? Can your requirements be easily verified? Do you anticipate any particularly difficult requirements? Are there options that you want to give the customer? What is the rationale for your requirements? Are there high-risk requirements?

Requirements should be numbered to allow for traceability. You must format your requirements using the sample box in the template. You may also want to embed the rationale into the main sections instead of putting it in the analysis section.

Where to Get Requirements

While working on this homework, you may want to clarify certain requirements. You can do some "market analysis" by looking at what "competitors" have done.

Theoretically, you can also ask the customer what they want, but I don't want to involve the customer with every little question. For now, I'll field questions, going to the customer if necessary. Just post a message to the project forum and I'll answer it. You should also monitor the forum to see if I state any particular requirements you must address. If you have a general question about this homework, post to the general class forum instead.

Requirements Selection

After this homework has been graded, I will select a few of the best, or portions thereof, to constitute the "official" requirements document for the project. For each of your sections that is chosen, you will receive a bonus.

Submission

You must email a .zip file containing your main validated HTML file, as well as any supporting images or other files, to csci435@coppit.org

Grading

Make sure that you address requirements issues, and not specification or design issues. This is a fuzzy request, since the client might characterize specification and design issues as requirements issues. For example, the use of Java has been made a requirements issue by the customer. Similarly, the user interface is really a design issue, but is so important that it must be addressed at the requirements stage. For anything that is not technically a requirement, be sure to highlight it in some way in your document. When in doubt, ask!

200 points total. Both team members earn the same grade. You will lose points for at least the following:

• Not clearly labeling things in the document which are not technically requirements
• Failing to address obvious requirements issues
• Poor analysis of requirements
• Obviously incorrect requirements