ITPEC IP April 2021 Question 98
Company A runs a securities business and Company B is a system developer. Company A outsources a project to develop a stock ordering system to Company B from the start of the project. During the operational test of the project, a defect is discovered. The defect is caused because Company A did not inform Company B of the “Exceptional rule for approval of the responsible person during ordering of stocks.” Which of the following is the phase where such a rule should be clearly explained to Company B?
Explanation
Definition of business requirements — the exceptional approval rule is part of how Company A does its business, so it must reach Company B when the business requirements are defined.
Requirements are defined from the business downwards:
- •Business requirements: the work, its flows, rules and exceptions, stated by the business owner, Company A
- •System requirements: the functions and qualities the whole system needs to realise those business requirements
- •Software requirements: what the software part of that system must do
- •System test requirements: how the finished system is checked against the requirements
The approval exception is a rule of the securities business that only Company A knows. Missing from the business requirements, it is missing from everything derived from them, so the defect surfaced only in the operational test.
Answer (a)
Why not others:
- •(b) — software requirements are derived from the system requirements; a business rule nobody told Company B about cannot appear there
- •(c) — system requirements translate the business requirements into what the system must do; they refine business rules but cannot supply a missing one
- •(d) — test requirements define how the requirements are verified; a rule first explained there would be tested for but never designed in
Key rule: Business rules, exceptions included, come from the business owner and belong in the earliest requirements; a gap there carries through every later phase.
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