Functional Specification
Functional Specification – The software development life cycle (SDLC) documentation stage is just as crucial as testing and programming. Though considered irrelevant and insignificant most of the time, documentation not only simplifies the development process but also helps all stakeholders to have a clear understanding of the entire project. During the software development process, different types of documentation are needed, such as product requirements, architecture design, technical, functional specification, end user, etc. In addition, these documents are necessary for software developers and testers to collect and document the various features and elements of software, which are an essential part of software engineering.
What is the Functional Specification?
Similar to the different types of documentation prepared during the software development process, the functional specification is ready and completed to define the project goals and the finished product. Also known as Functional Specification, it Document (FSD), and Functional Requirements Specification, among others, is primarily intend to define the requirements that the software solution will implement. In summary, in systems engineering and software development, the functional specification is a document that specifies the function that a system or component should perform. This document generally describes what the user needs from the system and the required properties of inputs and outputs. A functional specification is the most technical answer to the corresponding requirements documents, such as the product requirements document.
Categories of Requirements in Functional Specifications:
Written and prepared by the business analyst or technical managers. The functional specification document provides a wide range of details about the software, its operations, features, and deliverables. In addition, this document includes the information that the product must provide and defines its purposes. The functional specification or functional specification also elaborates on ways to judge the product’s effectiveness and ensures that the safety and security criteria of the software they fully met. Furthermore, a few requirements are mandatory for the functional specification since they are essential for it and can consider the backbone of the entire document. These requirements define how the information will do record and included in the paper. That is, they classify the whole document according to various needs. So these requirements are:
Business Requirements – Contrary to its name. It provides a brief detail about the business process. The need for the custom program report, and the software and functional requirements.
Security Considerations: The information provided here primarily pertains to who will access the program and project. The primary goal here is to define the level of security, either at the code level or at the country level.
Data Requirements: Specifies the content or structure that requires and constitutes high-quality data.
User Requirements: Information that defines the user and customer requirements for the product. These are mainly written in natural language and do not require any technical precision.
Operational Requirements: Provides information on the technical environment, system integration, portability, and maintainability.
System Requirements – Written for developers and consists of detailed functional and non-functional requirements. In addition, these specify more clearly and rigorously.
Benefits of Functional Specifications:
As mentioned above, the benefits of creating a functional specification document are immense and innumerable. From describing processes and functionality to providing information about different requirements .A nd it helps the developer, tester, and others involve in the project in several ways. Therefore, here is a list of some of the advantages and benefits of preparing a it :
- Help software engineers save time and money.
- It provides them with an accurate timeline of the whole process.
- It will facilitate a more accurate quote.
- It will allow transparency between all stakeholders and members of the project.
- Help non-technical project members understand various development and testing processes.
- Since the its is designes to be read by a general audience. Its most significant advantage is that it can be read and understood by people without special technical knowledge.
Conclusion
Functional Specification as stated above, the software development process is a fusion of various activities. Which are time and money-consuming and require a lot of effort. It also includes a large amount of documentation. Which plays a critical role in defining the entire process and its basic requirements. Functional Specification /it Document is a document prepares by a technical manager or business analyst during the software development process. Also, a helpful specification document is generally need to evolve with the software product development because it is impossible to specify specific details at the time of project release.