Great applications cannot be built without having their foundations laid on a great plan.
The software requirement document template or the SRS document template are the outline of the plan that needs to be followed while developing your software application.
What is a software requirement specifications document?
The software requirement specifications (also referred to as SRS report or SRS document) are the preparatory documents that act as a blueprint when hiring a software development company and give valuable insight into the software product to be developed.
SRS documentation is crucial in the healthcare software development niche. Whether the software is intended for mobile apps, websites or medical, having access to the right template can give you a head start. The medical device software requirements specification template provides an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of what the product specifications and user requirements are and how the software would accomplish it.
Related:
- The SRS Document Template you can download and use today.
Key components to be included in the SRS document + SRS Document Template
The updated IEEE standards of SRS documentation in 2011 provide a software requirements documentation template that can be easily adapted to every project’s individual needs by the company.
1. Introduction
The introductory segment of the software requirements specification template needs to cover the purpose, document conventions, references, scope and intended audience of the document itself.
The system gives a high level overview of the software application to be built, sets the tone for the project, defines what the long term objectives and goals of the project are and gives all the team members working on the project absolute clarity. Having a table of contents can make it easy for the users to quickly have an overview of the document details.
2. System requirements and functional requirements
The functional requirements or the overall description documents include the product perspective and features, operating system and operating environment, graphics requirements, design constraints and user documentation.
The appropriation of requirements and implementation constraints gives the general overview of the project in regards to what the areas of strength and deficit are and how to tackle them.
3. External interface requirements
Interface requirements consist of the hardware and the software interfaces along with user and communication interfaces.
- User interfaces consist of the style guides, screen layout, buttons, functions.
- The software interfaces consists of the platform, database system, front end and the backend framework, operating systems, tools and libraries.
- Hardware interfaces includes details of the hardware components like the list of supported devices, nature of data and the hardware-software interactions.
- Communications interfaces are the network server communications protocols. The requirements determine the communication standards to be utilized.
4. Non-functional requirements
The non-functional requirements constitute the following:
- Performance requirements
- Safety requirements
- Security requirements
- Software quality attributes
- Other requirements
Steps and Tips for Writing a SRS document for your Project (SRS Document Template)
1. Utilize a pre-existing SRS documentation template
Having a sample software documentation specifications template acts as a great beginning point for writing a fresh SRS document.
While the intricate details may vary from product-to-product, the general guidelines for documentation and the framework to be followed remains the same.
If you have previously worked on any software application, the SRS documentation of the software can be a good starting point. It is also a good idea to refer to existing software requirements document examples.
Conversely, a software requirements documentation template or referring to the format of SRS can help in giving you the much needed head start before you start working on your application.
2. Collect requirements and validate them
The requirements for the SRS template in software engineering have to be collected from all the stakeholders in the project, both on the business end as well as the customer end. A number of tools and analysis models can be used to collect the requirements.
User surveys for market analysis and competitive analysis are great tools to know what the actual requirements are and what is the actual priority of the requirements.
In order to classify the priority, validation of the requirements become necessary.
The requirements collected have to be measured against the actual purpose of the software application in order to determine which system feature to include on a priority basis and what the product scope would be.
3. Get a technical writer with excellent communication skills
The person who drafts your software requirement specification document need not be a developer but being a good communicator is a prerequisite.
While the input for the documentation can come from one of the many stakeholders involved- the developers, the project manager, the end user or the client itself, the actual writer needs to be a technical writer who is skilled enough to put all the specific requirements on paper in a language that can be clearly understood by all the stakeholders involved.
4. Rank requirements according to priority
The priority status of the various requirements mentioned within the SRS documentation may vary.
In order to give absolute clarity to all stakeholders involved in the project, it is crucial to rank the requirements according to their importance so that high priority requirements can be dealt first followed by secondary or low priority requirements.
5. Keep margin for flexibility to incorporate future changes
Software development projects are long-term commitments and the requirements may evolve over the course of time. The software requirements specification document should thus keep a margin for flexibility in order to incorporate future changes if any.