Decide what structure will be used for the Stakeholder Requirements Specification. If you are not using an existing specification, then you should preferably follow a template or a previous specification as a model. Create the outline specification following the chosen structure.

Review and update the specification structure as necessary.

Use the most appropriate method to gather information, such as those in the Requirements Gathering Techniques.

Take the needs and features already identified and combine them with requests gathered from the stakeholders in preparation for creating lower-level requirements, briefly describing them and giving attributes to help define their general state and priority in the project. Requests that fall outside the scope should not be automatically rejected, but to be analyzed and tracked.

Gather the various types of requirement. These will include those generated from the Stakeholder Requests and generated from the Use Cases. The most important result of this step is that all Stakeholder Requirements (in any form) are gathered (that is, documented in a suitable format) and made available for analysis. The principal output from this step is a Stakeholder Requirements Specification, which may be an update of an existing specification.

Refine the raw Stakeholder Requirements (often the same as the source requests) according to the checklists.

At the end of this step:

• Each individual Stakeholder Requirement should conform to the Checklist for Stakeholder Requirements;
• The complete set should conform to the Checklist for Stakeholder Requirements Specifications;
• The complete set should be consistent with the vision.

The principal output from this step is an updated Stakeholder Requirements Specification.

Make sure that each requirement part of the Stakeholder Requirements Specification is linked to at least one stakeholder need (or other source, such as local or national standards, regulations, etc.).

For more information, refer to Рекомендация: Traceability and to Концепция: Traceability.

Ensure that the requirements at this stage are consistent with each other and with the source material. Inconsistencies between the requirements, and between the requirements and the source material are identified, discussed (with stakeholders) and resolved.

Inconsistencies between the requirements and the derived work products (e.g. system requirements from previous iterations, test specifications) are identified, discussed and resolved. 

The output from this step is an updated Stakeholder Requirements Specification.

Those stakeholders that will use this specification to drive their work must understand it. These stakeholders include

• Architects and Developers in order to define solutions;
• Testers to define Test Specifications;
• Project Managers (Team Leaders) to create work packages, priorities, and assignments;

Use the Checklist for Stakeholder Requirements and the Checklist for Stakeholder Requirements Specifications.

The aim of this step is to ensure that all relevant stakeholders agree that the requirements meet their needs and satisfy the relevant guidelines and checklists.

A review of the requirements is conducted with relevant stakeholders to ensure agreement, assess quality, and/or identify changes required.  See Effective Requirement Reviews for more information. The Requirements Specification should specify the exact scope of the product from the point of view of the stakeholders.

When the criteria of the review are satisfied, baseline the set of Requirements.