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4. I ''need'' a car (The capability exists and it is feasible. Having a car surpassed
other competing demands)
5. I ''require'' a car (Possessing a car can no longer be postponed. It is essential
now)
Could you see the increasing emphasis with each statement as it moves from
statement 1 to statement 5? The term ''Requirement'' connotes essentiality of
some need.
The dictionary defines requirements as ''a need'', ''a thing needed'', ''a nec-
essary condition'', ''a demand'', ''something essential to the existence or occur-
rence of something else'', and ''something that is needed or that must be done''.
Simply stated, a requirement is a need of some person or process. A require-
ment is capable of being fulfilled. If we come across a requirement that cannot be
fulfilled, it becomes a desire that can perhaps be fulfilled at a later date or with a
better technology or better set of circumstances.
Wikipedia defines requirements in the context of software engineering thus, ''It
is a statement that identifies a necessary attribute, capability, characteristic, or
quality of a system in order for it to have value and utility to a user''. In the context
of other engineering disciplines, it defines requirements as ''a singular docu-
mented need of what a particular product or service should be or perform''.
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard 610 ''Glossary
of Software Engineering Terminology'' provides three definitions:
1. A condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an
objective,
2. A condition or capability that must be met/possessed by a system or system
component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification or other formally
imposed documents.
3. A documented representation of a condition or a capability as in (1) or (2)
above.
CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) for Development version 1.3
also gives three definitions almost similar to IEEE definitions:
1. A condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an
objective,
2. A condition or capability that must be met/possessed by a product, service,
product component or service component to satisfy a supplier agreement,
standard, specification or other formally imposed documents.
3. A documented representation of a condition or a capability as in (1) or (2)
above.
As can be seen, CMMI definitions are slightly different that too, only in the
second definition and that difference is only minimal. It appears that CMMI
adopted the IEEE definitions.
The above definitions suffer from the following limitations:
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