Requirements Specification

This quiz covers the goals of requirements specification, why design information sometimes appears in requirements, the five main notations for writing requirements (natural language, structured natural language, design description languages, graphical notations, mathematical specifications), guidelines for natural language specification, and the structured form-based approach with its required fields

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QUESTION OF

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Views #: 250

Questions #: 13

Time: 12 minutes

Pass Score: 80.0%

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Step

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Mode

Exam

Practice

Goals of Requirements Specification

2 pts

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Ideally, user and system requirements should have which of the following properties? Select all that apply.

Ambiguous

Complete

Easy to understand

Unambiguous

Consistent

Verbose

Clear

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User Requirements Writing Style

2 pts

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User requirements should be written so that they are understandable by system users who don't have detailed technical knowledge. Which of the following should you avoid when writing user requirements? Select all that apply.

Software jargon

Formal mathematical notations

Natural language

Structured notations

Simple tables

Intuitive diagrams

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Why Design Information Appears in Requirements

2 pts

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Ideally, system requirements should describe only the external behavior of the system. However, in practice design information sometimes appears in requirements. Which of the following are valid reasons why? Select all that apply.

The use of a specific architecture to satisfy non-functional requirements (e.g., N-version programming for reliability) may be necessary

Developers prefer design specifications because they make coding easier

Systems must often interoperate with existing systems, which constrains the design and imposes requirements on the new system

You may need to design an initial system architecture to structure the requirements specification, and requirements are organized according to the sub-systems in that architecture

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Five Notations for Requirements Specification

3 pts

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To complete the line match

Click on an item in the first group
Click on an item in the second group
To delete a match, double click on a line

Notation

Natural Language Sentences

Structured Natural Language

Design Description Languages

Graphical Notations

Mathematical Specifications

Description

Graphical models supplemented by text annotations used to define functional requirements; UML use case and sequence diagrams are commonly used

Requirements written using numbered sentences in natural language; each sentence should express one requirement

Notations based on mathematical concepts such as finite-state machines or sets; unambiguous but customers often cannot understand them

Requirements written in natural language on a standard form or template; each field provides information about an aspect of the requirement

Uses a language like a programming language with more abstract features to define an operational model; now rarely used

Match each requirements notation to its correct description.

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Natural Language — Dominant Notation

1 pts

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True or False: Despite its potential for vagueness and ambiguity, natural language will continue to be the most widely used way of specifying system and software requirements.

False

True

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Natural Language Guidelines — Standard Format

1 pts

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One guideline for writing natural language requirements recommends inventing a standard format and ensuring all requirement definitions adhere to it. What is the primary benefit of this approach?

It makes requirements shorter and cheaper to write

It makes omissions less likely and makes requirements easier to check

It allows requirements to be automatically converted into source code

It ensures all requirements can be tested mathematically

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Mandatory vs. Desirable Requirements in Natural Language

1 pts

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Fill in the blanks:

"In natural language requirements writing, (1) requirements use the word 'shall', while (2) requirements that are not essential use the word 'should'."

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Rationale in Natural Language Requirements

1 pts

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True or False: Associating a rationale with each user requirement is particularly useful when requirements need to be changed, as it may help decide what changes would be undesirable.

False

True

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Structured Natural Language — Definition

1 pts

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Structured natural language is a way of writing system requirements where:

The freedom of the requirements writer is limited and all requirements are written in a standard way using templates, maintaining expressiveness while ensuring uniformity

Requirements are written in a formal mathematical notation

Requirements are written as executable code that defines the system behavior

Requirements are drawn as UML diagrams without any text

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Fields in a Structured Specification Form

2 pts

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When a standard form is used for specifying functional requirements, which of the following fields should be included? Select all that apply.

A description of inputs and where they come from

A description of the function or entity being specified

A description of the action to be taken

A description of the graphical user interface for the function

A description of the side effects of the function

A description of outputs and where they go to

Pre-condition and post-condition

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Tabular Specifications

1 pts

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Tabular specifications are particularly useful when:

You need to formally prove a mathematical property of the system

You need to describe a single linear sequence of events

There are a number of possible alternative situations and you need to describe the actions to be taken for each

You need to show which stakeholders are responsible for each requirement

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When to Use Graphical Models

1 pts

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Graphical models are most useful in requirements specification when you need to:

Show how a system state changes, or describe a sequence of actions in response to an event or message

Describe organizational policies that constrain the development process

Define the budget and schedule for the project

Write detailed mathematical proofs about system correctness

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Mathematical Specifications — Trade-offs

1 pts

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Which of the following correctly states the key trade-off of using mathematical specifications for requirements?

They reduce ambiguity but customers often cannot understand them and cannot verify that they represent what they actually want

They are only suitable for web application requirements

They are the cheapest notation to produce but the most error-prone

They are easy for all stakeholders to read but are imprecise

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Undergraduate Professional

Goals of Requirements Specification

Correct Answer

Explanation

User Requirements Writing Style

Correct Answer

Explanation

Why Design Information Appears in Requirements

Correct Answer

Explanation

Five Notations for Requirements Specification

Notation

Description

Correct Answer

Explanation

Natural Language — Dominant Notation

Correct Answer

Explanation

Natural Language Guidelines — Standard Format

Correct Answer

Explanation

Mandatory vs. Desirable Requirements in Natural Language

Correct Answer

Explanation

Rationale in Natural Language Requirements

Correct Answer

Explanation

Structured Natural Language — Definition

Correct Answer

Explanation

Fields in a Structured Specification Form

Correct Answer

Explanation

Tabular Specifications

Correct Answer

Explanation

When to Use Graphical Models

Correct Answer

Explanation

Mathematical Specifications — Trade-offs

Correct Answer

Explanation

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