SOFTWARE Requirements Specification is usually the first deliverable for any software PROJECT. As they say, first impression is the BEST impression!, and you should ensure that even the first draft of an SRS is of high quality.

The benefits of a GOOD SRS are :

● A contract between the customer and the software vendor – A good SRS document specifies all the features required in the final system including technical requirements and INTERFACE requirements. SRS document is used by the customer to determine whether the software vendor has provided all the features in the delivered software system. To the Software vendor it provides a solid foundation to fix the scope of the software system.

● Enables costing and pricing of the project – A well defined SRS enables software developers to accurately estimate the amount of effort required to build the software product. Function point analysis and SMC are some the techniques adopted for estimating effort.

● Input for detailed design – A good SRS enables experienced developers to convert the requirements directly to a technical design. For example, a well defined data dictionary can be easily converted to a database specification.

● Management of customer expectations – Since SRS precisely defines project scope, it ensures that customer expectations don’t change during software development. If they do, SRS can be modified and costing/pricing can be done again on the changes required. 

Software Requirements Specification is usually the first deliverable for any software project. As they say, first impression is the best impression!, and you should ensure that even the first draft of an SRS is of high quality.

The benefits of a good SRS are :

● A contract between the customer and the software vendor – A good SRS document specifies all the features required in the final system including technical requirements and interface requirements. SRS document is used by the customer to determine whether the software vendor has provided all the features in the delivered software system. To the Software vendor it provides a solid foundation to fix the scope of the software system.

● Enables costing and pricing of the project – A well defined SRS enables software developers to accurately estimate the amount of effort required to build the software product. Function point analysis and SMC are some the techniques adopted for estimating effort.

● Input for detailed design – A good SRS enables experienced developers to convert the requirements directly to a technical design. For example, a well defined data dictionary can be easily converted to a database specification.

● Management of customer expectations – Since SRS precisely defines project scope, it ensures that customer expectations don’t change during software development. If they do, SRS can be modified and costing/pricing can be done again on the changes required.