Summary

---

The symptoms of Requirement Deficiency are:

• Vagueness exists in the requirements; in other words, the requirements lack the necessary level of detail.

• A lack of constraints on the implementation due to loose or missing requirements, leading to a plethora of options that must be chosen from in an arbitrary fashion.

• Requirements that have been in several past projects of the same or similar type are missing from the new requirements.

• Intuition that something is missing.

To prevent Requirement Deficiency:

• Establish clear and efficient communication channels all the way from the end user to the individual developer.

• Keep a record of communications about the requirements, allowing easy reference to more material in case of lost information or disputes.

• Make a checklist of common requirements that should be in every project, usually including:

  • Performance

  • Memory Usage

  • File Storage

  • Stability

  • Backward Compatibility

  • Extensibility

• Generate technical requirements and use these to determine if changes or additions are required to the customer’s requirements.

• Leave flexibility where the requirements are loose or missing to prepare for possible future demands in that area.

To cure the effects of Requirement Deficiency:

• Get feedback early and often, usually made possible by using an incremental development methodology.

• Incorporate feedback into the requirements as soon as it is received.

• Negotiate with the customer about alternatives and tradeoffs if the new requirements are not feasible within the time and budget allotted.

• Refactor current code before implementing new functionality associated with the new requirements.

---