Well-defined functional and non-functional requirements are a key step when you plan to create a successful application. Identifying your needs and converting them into clear requirements help development teams better understand your goals, product idea, and expectations. They are the team’s first step to getting well-prepared for the IT project.
Let’s look at some statistics. Research shows that over 30% of IT projects fail because of poorly formulated requirements. Creating unclear requirements can increase the project timeline and budget by up to 60%, so it’s worth learning how to do it right and increase your chances of success.
First, you must understand what “non-functional requirements” means and how you should describe them correctly in the project specification. Keep reading!
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Formulating functional and non-functional app requirements is essential if you plan to create a new IT product in cooperation with a software house. Specifying expectations affects the effectiveness of the web development process . In particular, it allows developers to better understand your product goals and vision and get well-prepared for the procedure.
What do “non-functional requirements” mean? To put it simply, non-functional requirements (called Quality Attributes) describe the system’s performance and operational capabilities. In other words, they define how the system should work and any functionality limits it should have. The requirements are determined mainly by the application type, target group, budget, your needs, and the project’s goals.
When you plan to build your application, don’t forget about identifying the functional requirements, too—these are equally important when gathering your needs. Functional requirements focus on functionalities only, and defining them means describing each functionality step by step.
Let’s go back to the non-functional requirements for a moment. What are the different types? The scale of choice is extensive, so we’re presenting just a few examples to give you a good idea:
Don’t forget about covering some vital information in your specification, like the browser types you want to adapt the system to or the implementation method. Read on to get the detail— we will discuss each area separately in the next part of this article.