Improve Your Requirements: Quantify Them

One of the biggest challenges requirements analysts face is quantifying requirements. Analysts frequently ask how to do this, what techniques support it, and most importantly, where the numbers come from. Alas, quantifying your requirements is more easily said than done. Most people would say that it shows that the software complies with the requirements - that it´s sufficiently fast, reliable, usable, and so forth. No doubt this is important, but showing compliance supports downstream development rather than the requirements process itself. However, quantification is also integral to challenging, and thus improving, requirements during your requirements process. Successful quantification can motivate people to find ways to deliver on these requirements by giving them clear targets to work toward. Although quantifying requirements can be difficult, several techniques can help. The author discusses two such techniques - Volere and Planguage