The process of developing product requirements is known as requirements development. Creating a thorough checklist to ensure the quality of the criteria you’ve written is an important aspect of the process. Below is a basic checklist that can be used to determine whether a requirement is acceptable, needs to be modified, or eliminated.

Checklist: Requirements Development Checklist

• Were the requirements documented?
• Was a requirements walkthrough held to validate the requirements?
• Was each requirement checked to see that it met all of the following?
  • Necessary [trace to a user need]
  • Concise [minimal]
  • Feasible [attainable]
  • Testable [measurable]
  • Technology Independent [avoid “HOW to” statements unless they are real constraints on the design of the system]
  • Unambiguous [Clear]
  • Complete [function fully defined]
• Was a verification case for each requirement developed? [test, demonstration, analysis, inspection]
• Was each user need fully addressed by one or more system requirement(s)?
• Is the requirement set complete?
• Have the following types of requirements been defined?
  • Functional
  • Performance
  • Enabling [training, operations & maintenance support, development, testing, production, deployment, disposal]
  • Data
  • Software
  • Interface
  • Environmental
  • Non-functional [reliability, availability, safety, and security].
• Were attributes [quality factors] assigned to each requirement [Priority, risk, cost, owner, date, and verification method]? Verification methods could include demonstration, analysis, test, and inspection.
• Were the requirements reviewed and approved by the stakeholders and was a baseline [reference point for future decisions] established?
• During this process step, were periodic reviews performed? Were the reviews done in accordance with the review plan documented in the System Engineering Plan (SEP)?
• Was there adequate configuration control of the requirement?
• Can each requirement be traced to upper level and mission level needs.

AcqLinks and References:

• Requirements Development Checklist
• DAU Systems Engineering Fundamentals Guide
• Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Systems Engineering Primer & Handbook
• NASA Systems Engineering Handbook (large 9M file)
• EIA-632 “Processes for Engineering a System” – 7 Jan 99

Updated: 7/28/2023

Rank: G2.8