A Reference Model for Requirements and Specifications

M a y / J u n e 2 0 0 0 I E E E S O F T W A R E 37 between the user-requirements specification and the software-requirements specification, mandating complete documentation of each according to various rules. Other cases emphasize this distinction less. For instance, some groups at Microsoft argue that the difficulty of keeping a technical specification consistent with the program is more trouble than the benefit merits.2 We can find a wide range of views in industry literature and from the many organizations that write software. Is it possible to clarify these various artifacts and study their properties, given the wide variations in the use of terms and the many different kinds of software being written? Our aim is to provide a framework for talking about key artifacts, their attributes, and relationships at a general level, but precisely enough that we can rigorously analyze substantive properties.