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Natural Language Guidelines — Standard Format

publish date: 2026/06/06 10:19:25.863042 UTC

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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 allows requirements to be automatically converted into source code

It makes omissions less likely and makes requirements easier to check

It makes requirements shorter and cheaper to write

It ensures all requirements can be tested mathematically

Correct Answer

It makes omissions less likely and makes requirements easier to check

Explanation

Standardizing the format makes omissions less likely and requirements easier to check. The format should express the requirement in a single sentence. A statement of rationale should be associated with each user requirement to explain why it has been proposed, and information on who proposed it (the requirement source) should be included.

Reference

Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 9th edition

Quizzes you can take where this question appears

Requirements Specification