Properties of Requirement

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Till now we saw various constructs of Requirements Tree Diagram. These constructs play a vital role in capturing the requirements. But do these constructs capture all the flavors of a requirement? Do these constructs capture the micro details of a requirement? Well, these constructs guide us to travel from a very generic requirement to a more specific, detailed requirement. Beyond this point, still huge information is required pertaining to a requirement. This information includes the logic behind the particular requirement, various inputs essential to the logic as well as the various results that may come up as a result of application of the logic. All this information is very specific to the requirement. In other words, all this exclusive information forms the properties of the requirement.

Any requirement has 3 basic properties as follows:

• Business logic
• List of input parameters essential to apply logic
• Desired output results

Business Logic

Business logic is the heart of any requirement, or even the entire application. When we split the application in to number of requirements, we actually split the business logic of the application into parts. Concentrating on one part of the logic at a time, we ensure that each aspect of the logic has received thorough attention.

Any requirement in Requirements Tree Diagram cannot be complete without its supporting business logic. Business logic of each requirement in Requirements Tree Diagram can be captured using old aged tools like Flow Charts. Since we have already split the requirement, and so the business logic, now it is a very simple task in to draw a separate flow chart for business logic for each requirement.

Input Parameters

Execution of business logic may need certain inputs from the existing entities. These are the various input parameters that are used by the business logic. Some of these inputs parameters are internally computed in the requirement itself. But most of times, they are supplied to the requirement from outside world. List of such externally supplied parameters is a very essential property of any requirement.

Desired Output Results

Applications are built up to satisfy certain needs, Any application not aiming to satisfy a single need is a dead application. Similarly at micro level, each requirement satisfies certain needs. This is nothing but the output of the business logic of the requirement, Each requirement aims towards a certain goal which is a primary output desired from the business logic of the requirement. But this may not necessarily be the only output that may get generated. Based on conditions and respective actions specified in the business logic, there could also be some other outputs that may get generated. Such outputs can be terms as Secondary Results. For every requirement in Requirements Tree Diagram, user should capture a list of outputs (both primary as well as secondary) that may get generated.

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