Software Testing - Business Requirement
A software is developed based on its functional, and business requirements. The business requirements refer to the process of gathering, and describing the business needs of the users namely vendors, customers, and employees from the start of the software development lifecycle(SDLC). They act as a guideline for the future development of the software, and are mostly formulated by the business analysts from the organizations.
What is Business Requirements?
The business requirements are the fundamental requirements, and assumptions that the software should be able to perform to achieve the strategic aims of the organization. They also describe the business objectives, how the business should run, and how the software will help the business to function, and accomplish its objectives. They are defined at the initial phases of the SDLC, and guide the process of building the architecture, and design of the software.
What does the software business requirements comprise of?
The software business requirements comprise of the items listed below −
- The software business requirements comprise of the business context, scope, background, organizational objectives, industry patterns etc.
- The software business requirements list down the business stakeholders in the projects namely regulatory bodies, customers, executives, business analysts etc.
- The software business requirements comprise of the criterias that will define if the project has succeeded. These are decided with respect to the organizational goals, and include measures to improve productivity and cost, to enhance end user experiences, and to comply with standards, and regulations.
- The software business requirements comprise of the various constraints and limitations that should be considered at the time of software development.
- The software business requirements comprise the conceptual data models such as data entities, relationship, properties. It also describes the data dictionary of various sets of data to be used in the software.
Advantages of Software Business Requirements
The advantages of the software business requirements are listed below −
- The software business requirements give an accurate objective, and alignment of what the organization wants to achieve by developing the software. This primarily helps to bring all the stakeholders to the same page.
- The software business requirements improve the mode of communications between the business stakeholders, and the technical teams within the project.
- The software business requirements help to come up with project plans, budgets, schedules etc which are key elements of successful project management.
- By identifying the business requirements from the very stages of the SDLC, the majority of the potential risks in the software are mitigated.
- The business requirements help to improve the customer satisfaction, and experiences while using the software.
- The business requirements are useful in effective utilization of the resources, time, effort, and cost by distributing them effectively for critical features, and functionalities of the software.
Who defines the Software Business Requirements?
The software business requirements are defined by the people listed below −
- Business Analyst
- Product Owners
- Project Managers
- Stakeholders
- Customers
- Sponsors
- Subject Matter Experts
Format of Software Business Requirements
The format of the software business requirements is described below −
Title Page − It consists of the name of the project, title of the document, authors, and date.
Contents Table − It describes the different sections, and their page numbers.
Summary − It describes the project, and its objectives along with scope of the business requirements.
Objectives − It describes in detail the business objectives, and purpose of the project.
Scope − It narrates the features, and functionalities of the project which are in-scope, and out of scope.
Stakeholders − It lists down all the names of the stakeholders, and their roles, and responsibilities.
Business Requirements − It comprises both the functional(features, and functionalities of the software), and the non-functional requirements(performance, reliability, usability, security etc of the software). They should have a requirement id, description, priority, dependencies, acceptance criteria etc.
Regulatory and Compliance Requirements − It comprises the legal, regulatory, and compliances that the software should follow.
Use Cases − They describe how the users should interact with software to achieve particular goals. Each of the use cases should have a use case id, descriptions, actors, prerequisites, post conditions, steps etc.
Assumptions and Constraints − They describe the various assumptions, and constraints namely cost, technical, schedules that may come up in the project.
Acceptance Criteria − It describes the criterias that should be met in order to consider a requirement to be fulfilled.
Traceability Matrix − It consists of a table that maps each requirement to its test cases, design factors, and the project objectives.
Approval and Sign Off − It consists of signatures of the project stakeholders, and sponsors.
Appendices − It comprises the glossary of important terms, documents, supporting items etc that have been cited. It is mainly done to make the business requirements more compact, accurate, exhaustive etc.
Prototyping in Software Business Requirements
The prototyping in the software business requirements are done for the reasons listed below −
- The prototyping helps in resolving the doubts in the requirements by visualizing them. Its main aim is to gather the feedback from the stakeholders so that the business requirements are clear, and with respect to the business objectives of the organization.
- The prototyping helps in improving the communication between the technical team and business stakeholders so that all of them have the same understanding of the requirements. It provides a platform to exchange ideas, and views to improve them.
- The prototyping works towards validation of the requirements by verifying them in a controlled environment. Thus it identifies defects in any requirement at the beginning of the development process.
- The prototyping helps in identifying scope of the requirements. Thus the features, and functionalities are prioritized with respect to its criticality.
- The prototyping is a cost, and time saving activity as it determines the gaps early rather than in the later stages of development. The requirements which have gone through the prototyping phase make the development process more systematic and efficient.
- The prototyping verifies the software from the early phases of the SDLC, as a result, the software becomes more usable. The feedback gathered during the prototyping phase makes it more close to the end users expectations.
Challenges of Software Business Requirements
The challenges of the software business requirements are listed below −
- The software business requirements are sometimes ambiguous, incomplete, unclear, and ill-documented which lead to misunderstandings, and confusion in the project.
- The modifications, and additions of business requirements may lead to delay in delivery, thereby impacting cost of the project. The priorities of the requirements may change in the middle as well.
- The unavailability of stakeholders may make the requirement gathering phase longer.
- The software business requirements which are complex, and are connected with each other are difficult to be described, and documented. Also, the business requirements should be compliant with the regulations, and standards.
- The different stakeholders may have different viewpoints on which requirements should be addressed first. The non availability of resources also impacts the choice of requirements.
- The business requirements sometimes have technical challenges if new requirements are to be merged with the legacy software. Moreover, some of the requirements cannot be fulfilled because of technical constraints.
- The software business requirements may have very poor documentation.
- The business requirements may be impacted by wrong assumptions from the project stakeholders. The global projects which are to be run across international boundaries can be affected by cultural differences leading to confusions.
- It is not easy to validate and confirm if the final software is built as per the business requirements of the project.
Conclusion
This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software Business Requirement. Weve started with describing what are the software business requirements, what does the software business requirements comprise of, what are the advantages of software business requirements, who defines the software business requirements, format of software business requirements, what is prototyping in the software business requirements, what are the challenges of software business requirements. This equips you with in-depth knowledge of Software Business Requirement. It is wise to keep practicing what youve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.