Software Development

Emerald Isle, NC, North Carolina, Functional Specification Sample

Software Requirements Analysis

Properly constructed, custom software can help your unique business opportunities to reach their full potential. A skilled consultant provides valuable assistance to searching for and discover all the necessary capabilities the software must have.

You may wonder how a consultant can understand your business enough to fully identify the software requirements. While rare, a talented consultant has the ability to interview key personnel and properly identify requirements. Indeed, a consultant can often see requirements that company insiders miss.

Thorough and Complete Review

Software rework costs sharply increase as you move further along in the software development cycle. Unfortunately, important features are frequently overlooked during the initial design stages. Often, this occurs when a key viewpoint is not considered. Can you afford to take the risk? Productive Technology's design review service help you be sure all key requirements are captured. Our business consultant provides valuable insight and experience to this critical task.

Example: Marketing

For example, marketing believes that sales will increase 30% if the software can perform a certain feature; however marketing was not involved in the software design. After development begins, IT presents a prototype to marketing. Only then do they learn of the necessary requirement. Design changes result in lost work and unexpected delays.

Avoid Surprises

Our proven approach to developing custom software applications. First, we meet with key stakeholders, project sponsors, and sample users. We document the requirements clearly. We'll facilitate meetings to review, revise, and approve the requirements. We estimate development costs, and, with your approval perform any necessary development tasks. When a project is urgent or critical, don't take chances, let a professional take responsibility for delivering the project on time, for the agreed-upon cost.

Understand the Business

You are the expert in your business; we are the custom software expert. Working in partnership toward common goal, our consultant combines software expertise with the business knowledge of your key stakeholders to understand the business problem the software will serve, and discovers the key software  requirements the solution must have.

Know Integration Points

Your software system may interact with other existing or anticipated systems. Smooth connections at these integration points are important. Your consultant can identify, document, and recommend innovative solutions to connect different systems into a cohesive, functional system.

Deliver Results

Following the requirements analysis, your consultant prepares a detailed report. The report lists all of the functional requirements the software application will have, and the rationale behind each requirement. This key deliverable forms the basis of discussions to finalize the software functional specification.

At this stage, your consultant discusses cost estimates for each feature. Design trade-offs occur, resulting in revised specifications. This process repeats until all stakeholders agree to the final functional specification. Finally, the feature set is complete, cost estimates are given, and the project is approved. Only now can you proceed with the software design, project planning, and budgeting. Your consultant is there to assist you as needed, every step of the way.