Requirement - Product Versus Process Requirements

Product Versus Process Requirements

Projects are subject to three sorts of requirements:

• Business requirements describe in business terms what must be delivered or accomplished to provide value.
• Product requirements describe properties of a system or product (which could be one of several ways to accomplish a set of business requirements.)
• Process requirements describe activities performed by the developing organization. For instance, process requirements could specify specific methodologies that must be followed, and constraints that the organization must obey.

Product and process requirements are closely linked. Process requirements often specify the activities that will be performed to satisfy a product requirement. For example, a maximum development cost requirement (a process requirement) may be imposed to help achieve a maximum sales price requirement (a product requirement); a requirement that the product be maintainable (a Product requirement) often is addressed by imposing requirements to follow particular development styles (e.g., object-oriented programming), style-guides, or a review/inspection process (process requirements).