Operational and Environmental Requirements: Type 13


Operational requirements describe the environment in which the product will be used. In some cases the operating environment creates special circumstances that have an effect on the way the product must be constructed.

Description: The product shall be used in and around trucks at night and during rainstorms, snow, and freezing conditions.

Rationale: This is the environment in which the engineers work.


Consider the impact if the above requirement had not been written.

Not all products must operate in such an extreme environmenta lot of products are written for personal computers or workstations situated in offices with an uninterruptible power supply. But the seemingly simple environment may be more demanding than it first appears, or it may become more demanding if the operational requirements are not considered carefully.

Figure 8.5 refers to a cargo airline that built its own controller for the high-loader. High-loaders are the machines used to lift the pallets and containers up to the aircraft cargo doors. You have probably watched these devices while staring out the departure gate window waiting for your flight to board. For some reason, the airline's requirements team failed to include the requirement that the product would be used outside for extended periods. The first rainstorm shorted out the electronics of version 1 of the controller.

Figure 8.5.

Will the product work in its intended operating environment?


Operational requirements are also written when the product has to collaborate with partner products, access outside databases, or interface with other systems that supply information. These show up as actors on the product use case diagram, or as adjacent systems on the context model.

The product shall interface with the thermal mapping database.


To find the operational requirements, look at your product boundary and consider the needs of each of the adjacent systems and/or actors. If necessary, interview each actor or representative of the system to find the requirements resulting from the way that it goes about its product-related work.

You might have to describe the physical environment affecting the users when they use the product. This often means special constraints are placed on the way the product is constructed. For example, if the product will be used by people in wheelchairs or people sitting in an aircraft seat, then you must specify it.

Operational requirements can cover these issues:

  • The operating environment

  • The condition of the users (Are they in the dark, in a hurry, and so on?)

  • Partner or collaborating systems

Portable devices have their own special set of requirements, because you must specify whether the product, or parts of it, will be carried about. For example:

The product shall survive being dropped.

The product shall be used in variable lighting conditions.

The product shall conserve battery life.


If you are building products for sale, you should include any requirements needed to turn the product into a distributable or saleable item. It is also appropriate to describe any operational requirements that relate to the successful installation of the product.




Mastering the Requirements Process
Mastering the Requirements Process (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0321419499
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 371

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