Functional requirements

In Software engineering and systems engineering, a functional requirement defines a function of a system or its component. A function is described as a set of inputs, the behavior, and outputs.

Functional requirements may be calculations, technical details, data manipulation and processing and other specific functionality that define what a system is supposed to accomplish. Behavioral requirements describing all the cases where the system uses the functional requirements are captured in use cases. Functional requirements are supported by non-functional requirements (also known as quality requirements), which impose constraints on the design or implementation (such as performance requirements, security, or reliability). Generally, functional requirements are expressed in the form "system must do <requirement>", while non-functional requirements are "system shall be <requirement>". The plan for implementing functional requirements is detailed in the system design. The plan for implementing non-functional requirements is detailed in the system architecture.

As defined in requirements engineering, functional requirements specify particular results of a system. This should be contrasted with non-functional requirements which specify overall characteristics such as cost and reliability. Functional requirements drive the application architecture of a system, while non-functional requirements drive the technical architecture of a system.

In some cases a requirements analyst generates use cases after gathering and validating a set of functional requirements. The hierarchy of functional requirements is: user/stakeholder request → feature → use case → business rule. Each use case illustrates behavioral scenarios through one or more functional requirements. Often, though, an analyst will begin by eliciting a set of use cases, from which the analyst can derive the functional requirements that must be implemented to allow a user to perform each use case.

A typical functional requirement will contain a unique name and number, a brief summary, and a rationale. This information is used to help the reader understand why the requirement is needed, and to track the requirement through the development of the system.

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