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What are the best practices for incorporating non-functional requirements into your requirements models?

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Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are the qualities and constraints that affect how a system performs, such as usability, reliability, security, scalability, and maintainability. They are often overlooked or neglected in the requirements modeling process, leading to poor design decisions, customer dissatisfaction, and technical debt. In this article, you will learn the best practices for incorporating NFRs into your requirements models, using different techniques and tools.

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1 Why are NFRs important?

NFRs are important because they define the expected behavior and performance of a system under different conditions and scenarios. They also reflect the needs and preferences of the stakeholders, such as users, customers, developers, and regulators. NFRs can have a significant impact on the architecture, design, testing, and deployment of a system, as well as its cost, quality, and value. Therefore, NFRs should be identified, analyzed, prioritized, and verified throughout the system development life cycle.

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Aagam Shah

Product Manager @Phenom | CMU | Ex-Product Developer @1486 Labs
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I recall a project where non-functional requirements (NFRs) were initially overlooked. This resulted in performance issues that were not caught until late in the development cycle, leading to costly rework. Eliciting NFRs requires engaging with all stakeholders to understand their implicit expectations of the system. I've found that facilitating workshops and conducting interviews with users, administrators, and support staff offers insights into the desired quality attributes like security, scalability, and maintainability. Modeling NFRs is the use of standardized templates and tools like quality attribute scenarios and utility trees. These help in making the NFRs explicit, measurable, and testable.

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2 How to elicit NFRs?

NFRs can be elicited from various sources, such as business goals, user stories, use cases, scenarios, interviews, surveys, observations, standards, regulations, and benchmarks. However, these requirements are often implicit, vague, subjective, or conflicting. To address these challenges and capture NFRs effectively, you should use a systematic and structured approach. This includes defining the scope and context of the system and its stakeholders; identifying relevant quality attributes and constraints; using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods; employing techniques such as brainstorming, questionnaires, prototyping, and focus groups to generate NFRs; using techniques such as interviews, workshops, and reviews to validate and refine NFRs; and documenting and prioritizing NFRs using a common format and language.

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Aagam Shah

Product Manager @Phenom | CMU | Ex-Product Developer @1486 Labs
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I initiated a "Requirements Discovery Workshop" that brought together a diverse group of stakeholders. We used various facilitated exercises to surface expectations about system performance, security, and usability. This approach helped us uncover NFRs that the stakeholders themselves might not have been explicitly aware of. Conducting surveys and interviews with end-users has been instrumental in understanding the real-world environment in which the system will operate. The use of scenario-based requirements elicitation. Crafting realistic usage scenarios can help stakeholders articulate expectations about system behavior under various conditions, thereby identifying potential NFRs related to reliability and scalability

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3 How to model NFRs?

NFRs can be modeled using various techniques and tools, which depend on the level of abstraction, detail, and formality required. Textual specifications are a simple way to express NFRs using sentences or paragraphs, but they can be ambiguous, inconsistent, or incomplete. Tables and matrices can be used to organize and compare NFRs using rows and columns, but they can be complex, redundant, or difficult to maintain. Graphical models represent NFRs with symbols, diagrams, or charts, however they can be abstract, complex, or difficult to understand. Formal models are precise and rigorous ways to specify NFRs using mathematical or logical expressions; however they can be expensive, time-consuming, or impractical.

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Igor Topalov

Solutions Architect & Consultant | Finding a way to do more using less within the reason and the budget
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NFR are to be modeled on basis of Technology Reference Model, Components Integration Contract, and Component(a) SLA. Beware that NFR MUST now account for “elasticity” and other “cloud-native” aspects. Also (what is relatively new) NFR are to be DevOps “friendly”

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Aagam Shah

Product Manager @Phenom | CMU | Ex-Product Developer @1486 Labs
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We faced challenges with capturing NFRs related to system performance. By creating custom performance modeling diagrams that outlined expected load and response times, we could communicate these NFRs effectively to both the development team and stakeholders. Using a combination of use case diagrams for usability requirements and deployment diagrams for scalability has provided a comprehensive view of system expectations, fostering a deeper understanding of NFRs across the team. Integrating NFRs into behavior-driven development (BDD) scenarios. This has allowed us to model NFRs in a manner that aligns with agile practices, ensuring they are considered continuously throughout development.

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4 How to verify NFRs?

Verifying NFRs can be done using a variety of techniques and tools, depending on the type, level, and criteria of verification needed. Reviews and inspections are manual methods for examining and evaluating NFRs, though they can be subjective and inconsistent. Tests and measurements are empirical ways to measure NFRs, but they can be costly and complex. Analysis and evaluation are analytical methods for assessing NFRs, but they can be abstract or unreliable. All of these techniques and tools can provide feedback or recommendations, compare expected or desired values, collect data or metrics, calculate predictions or solutions, and offer insights.

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5 How to manage NFRs?

NFRs can be managed using a variety of techniques and tools, depending on the scope, scale, and complexity of the system and its development process. Traceability is an effective way to link NFRs to other elements, such as requirements, design, code, or test cases. This can help track the origin, evolution, and impact of NFRs throughout the system development life cycle. Prioritization is also important for ranking NFRs according to their importance, urgency, or value. Negotiation is a useful technique for reaching an agreement on NFRs among different stakeholders. This can help clarify, refine, or reconcile ambiguous or conflicting NFRs while balancing the needs of different stakeholders.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Veniamin Stakhovsky

Data-Driven Senior Product Manager | Technical Product Manager with 10+ years of experience in FinTech | Payments | B2B | B2C | Safety | Antifraud | Customer Care | AI | ML
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Amazon Web Services (AWS) exemplifies incorporating non-functional requirements (NFRs) into its requirements models effectively. AWS prioritizes NFRs like scalability, reliability, and security from the outset of system design. For instance, when developing new services, AWS uses the "Well-Architected Framework" which embeds best practices for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization into the design process. This approach ensures that these critical non-functional aspects are not afterthoughts but integral to the initial design and development stages. By documenting and rigorously testing these NFRs alongside functional requirements, AWS ensures its services meet the highest standards

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What are the best practices for incorporating non-functional requirements into your requirements models?

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2

3

4

5

6

1 Why are NFRs important?

2 How to elicit NFRs?

3 How to model NFRs?

4 How to verify NFRs?

5 How to manage NFRs?

6 Here’s what else to consider

Systems Design

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What are the best practices for incorporating non-functional requirements into your requirements models?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Why are NFRs important?

2 How to elicit NFRs?

3 How to model NFRs?

4 How to verify NFRs?

5 How to manage NFRs?

6 Here’s what else to consider

Systems Design

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