How do you integrate functional specifications with other requirements documents and artifacts?

1 Elicitation Techniques

Elicitation is the process of gathering information and feedback from various sources, such as users, customers, domain experts, stakeholders, and existing systems or documents. This process aims to identify and understand the problems, needs, goals, and expectations that the system or product must address. To do this, common techniques like interviews, surveys, observation, brainstorming, and prototyping can be used. Interviews involve one-on-one or group conversations with sources to ask open-ended or closed-ended questions. Surveys are online or offline questionnaires with multiple-choice, rating, or open-ended questions to collect quantitative or qualitative data. Observation is direct or indirect observation of sources in their natural environment to understand their behaviors and preferences. Brainstorming is a collaborative session with sources or the project team to generate ideas and solutions. Lastly, prototyping involves creating low-fidelity or high-fidelity mockups of the system or product to demonstrate its features and solicit feedback.

2 Analysis Techniques

Analysis is the process of organizing, prioritizing, refining, and validating the information and feedback gathered from the elicitation phase. The goal is to extract functional requirements that are relevant, clear, consistent, testable, and aligned with the project objectives and constraints. To do this, one may use decomposition to break down complex or vague information into smaller components or sub-requirements, model the system or product with diagrams, charts, tables, or matrices, create narratives or stories that describe how it will be used by different actors or personas in different contexts, review and confirm the accuracy and feasibility of the requirements with sources or the project team, and assign weights, ranks, or categories to them based on their importance.

3 Documentation Techniques

Documentation is the process of recording, communicating, and managing the functional requirements throughout the project lifecycle. The aim is to develop a functional specification document that outlines the scope and quality of the system or product, and serves as a reference and agreement for the project team and sources. Techniques used to document functional requirements include natural language, structured language, user stories, use cases, and wireframes. Natural language involves writing the requirements in plain English or other natural language with simple sentences, active voice, and consistent terminology. Structured language requires writing the requirements in a standardized format or template with keywords, symbols, or rules to specify the syntax and semantics. User stories are short statements that explain what a user wants to do, why they want to do it, and how they will benefit from it. Use cases are sets of steps that describe how a user interacts with the system or product to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Finally, wireframes are sketches or drawings that demonstrate the layout, elements, and navigation of the user interface of the system or product.