- Foreword and Introduction
- 1: Putting projects in context
- 2: Entity arrangements
- 2.1 Strategic alignment
- 2.2 People and culture
- 2.3 Effective governance
- 2.4 Common APS Requirements
- Summary for entity arrangements
- 3: Individual project proposals
- 3.1 Clarifying the concept
- 3.2 The business case
- 3.3 Approving the project
- Summary for individual projects
- 4: Project implementation
- Appendices
- Quick reference card
PDF version of guide [3.0MB]
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Tips for PDF and HTML versions [0.5MB]
Word version of checklists [0.1MB]
D – Categories and examples of requirements
It is useful for executives to be familiar with the common categories of requirements, to assist them in assessing the completeness of the requirements listed in the business case. Requirements at the concept stage are discussed from page 51, and at the business case stage from page 63.
Functional requirements
Functional requirements describe the tasks and actions that need to be accomplished. For example: assess an application against specified criteria; make a payment; and prepare a specified report.
Generally actions are taken in relation to data, so it is common to also identify data requirements as part of the functional requirements.
Functional requirements are specific to the subject area. Identifying which functional requirements may be relevant to a proposed project can take considerable effort. If a project planning team does not have experience with a particular subject area, it is good practice for the project sponsor to encourage them to seek examples of functional requirements from colleagues or specialist advisers, to increase confidence that the relevant functions have been identified.
Non-functional requirements
Non-functional requirements describe criteria used to judge the overall quality of a system or product, rather than its specific behaviours. For example, factors such as usability, security and performance. Some examples of non-functional requirements are:
- Usability – look-and-feel, ease of use, ease of learning, accessibility requirements, personalisation, and internationalisation.
- Performance requirements – speed, reliability and availability, safety, and fault tolerance.
- Capacity requirements – number of transactions, number of users, data storage volume, and data transfer capacity.
- Adaptability requirements – ease of catering to greater capacity needs, ease of adding or changing functionality, ease of integration with other systems, and ease of transferring the system to other environments.
- Operational requirements – compatibility with planned operating environment, ease of support and maintenance, and operating costs.
- Security and privacy requirements – access control, security classification, privacy, and data and system integrity.
- Business continuity – data archiving, data backup and data recovery.
- Audit requirements – audit access arrangements, data retention, and event logging.
- Legal requirements – compliance with legislation and relevant standards.
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