ABSTRACT
The development of technological systems typically proceeds through a series of stages—from conception through requirements specification, conceptual design, detailed design, and implementation to testing, documentation, marketing, and maintenance. The success of all of these stages is perhaps most strongly determined by the quality of the requirements specification. This should detail all that the new system is expected to do, and it should include “analysis of customer needs, as well as specification of both the functional behaviour of the proposed system and the non-functional requirements that must be met” (Borgida, Greenspan, & Mylopoulos, 1985, p.82). The requirements specification is often the basis for a contract between the client and the designers: The designers use it to guide their design and the client uses it to ensure that the final design meets their needs.
