The Specifications Document
All the functional aspects that need to be described in the specifications are finally put together in a specification document. One possible outline for the specifications document is given below.
The first section includes an overview of the system, a definition of its general purpose, its users and what is to be found where in the specification document. The second section describes the user interface in detail. After a summary of all assumptions which are made about the system and its use, an overview of the user interface organization follows.
An organization by level of functionality's is recommended. It can parallel the structure of the requirements diagram in terms of major subsystems (activities), their constituent parts (sublevel activities), and, down to the lowest level, individual small functions.
First are all the activities on the top level and for each activity, its lower level function descriptions. Next are the state transition diagrams for all levels. The functional descriptions for each processing action already included any error messages and warnings as part of the output description. It is useful to have a centralized description of all error handling and error messages as well. The next section will do that.
There is also a section that details all output reports. After the user interface description, the specifications of system quality are described in the next section. Then follows a list of task assignments and schedules for the members of the development group.
The last section is devoted to describing the acceptance criteria and the acceptance test. There may be appendices for more detailed descriptions of items, related system descriptions, summaries of relevant literature, a sample session and a programming notes.
Parts of the specification document can also serve as a preliminary user manual. This is very useful, because it can provide a user-oriented system description.
Specification Document Outline
1. Overview
2. User Interface and System Specifications
2.1. Assumptions on System Use
2.2. User Interface and System Organization
2.3. Detailed Description of System by Layer (IPO)
3. State Transition Diagrams
4. Error Messages
5. Output (Report and File) Layout
6. Specifications of System Quality
7. Task Assignments, Schedules
8. Acceptance Criteria, Acceptance Test
9. Appendices