Secrets of understanding requirements
From DarkWiki
Introduction
Word tricks
Negation and inversion
When requirements are hard to descern, you can get a better understanding by playing with words. Let's take a rather simple looking requirement:
- Fred must include a picture or a song in an email
Now, we can apply inverses at different points to change meanings. This allows us to ask questions:
- Fred MUST NOT include a picture or a song in an email
- Fred must include a picture AND a song in an email
- Fred must include a picture or a NON-song in an email
- Fred must include a NON-picture or a song in an email
- Fred must EXCLUDE a picture or a song in an email
