Value proposition:
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Enables early collaboration with stakeholders to validate requirements to provide foundation for system
architecture.
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More rapid achievement and more complete set of use-cases and non-functional requirements.
The system specification is the process of designating the blackbox features of the system: its externally visible
functionality, what services it provides, and what measures of effectiveness it is expected to meet. It consists of
studying how the system is expected to perform in context. That is, the system is considered a participant in a broader
enterprise. The system specification follows from an analysis of the enterprise and the role the system plays in
enabling the broader enterprise to meet its business purpose or mission. This is the work done with use case
requirements analysis. Understanding context is critical in creating systems that accomplish the goals for which they
are built.
Understanding context, then, means understanding the interaction of the system with entities external to it (actors),
understanding the services required of the system, and understanding what gets exchanged between the system and its
actors. Understanding context is also important for ensuring that the appropriate requirements exist or will be
developed.
One of the most important contexts to consider is usage, that is, how a system is used, and how it interacts with
entities outside itself as it is used. Why? Because our purpose is to develop a system, or enhance an existing one, one
of our most important considerations should be that the system is useful. If we can base our designs on the actual
usages to which the system is to be put, we will be assured that we build what is needed. After all, systems are built
to be used!
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