Modern Requirements Specification.

Abstract

Requirements specification is the requirements engineering task during which analyzed requirements are properly documented for use by their intended audiences. Traditionally, this involved the requirements team using a word processing program to produce a single requirements specification document during an initial requirements phase of a project. However, trends in system development have made the numerous problems with this approach abundantly clear. Improvements in requirements tools have not only enabled better requirements management; they have also enabled the automatic generation of consistent, current, audience-specific requirements specifications that far better meet the needs of their individual audiences. 1 TRADITIONAL REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION During the 1970s and 1980s, requirements specification seemed at first glance to be a relatively simple task. During the initial requirements phase of a project, the requirements engineers would elicit functional requirements from the various stakeholders using a functional decomposition method such as structured analysis. Then they would use a