Specification Writing
a course/workshop presented over two days
Presented by Mr. Robert Halligan
Introduction
The two day Specification Writing course provides detailed instructions on the conversion of requirements into highly effective requirements specifications. Issues of structure (organization of information) and the use of (English) language throughout a requirements specification are examined in considerable detail. Public domain specification standards are overviewed and compared. High quality templates/guides are provided for the specification of systems, software, interfaces and services, respectively, with examples. The course is strongly workshop oriented throughout. The techniques of specification writing which are taught have been used to great effect in scenarios which include acquisition, supply, product definition (both hardware and software), enterprise internal projects, business analysis and engineering projects of diverse types, large and small.
Who Should Attend This Course?
Specification Writing is designed for acquirer, supplier and developer personnel who, in any capacity, deal with requirements.
Training Method and Materials
For each seminar attended, you will be provided with:
- comprehensive seminar notes
- a workbook containing workshop exercises
- workshop model solutions
- checklists, forms and charts which you can use immediately in your projects
- a CD-Rom with extensive documents and resources
- access to PPI's Systems Engineering Goldmine
Specification Writing Course Outline
1. Transforming Requirements into Requirements Specifications
- What is a specification?
- How requirements specifications relate to requirements
- How requirements specifications relate to configuration baselines
- Using DIDs and templates
- Using a requirements database to automate specification production
2. Requirements Flowdown in Specifications
- The specification tree
- Special considerations for interface requirements
3. Specification Types and Formats
- Types of requirements specification
- IEEE specification standards
- US Military and other international specification standards
- Score sheet for public domain specification standards
4. Structuring Your Specification
- What to put in your system requirements specifications, the statement of work (or equivalent) and the conditions of contract
- Workshop - allocation of requirements to the specification, the statement of work and conditions of contract
- Structuring a statement of work
- Structuring a system requirements specification
- Dealing with variants
- Workshop - structuring a specification to deal with variants
- States and Modes
- Workshop - structuring a specification to deal with states and modes
- Functional versus design oriented specifications
- Differences
- When to use each type
- Function and performance
- Workshop - classifying requirements as functional or design
- Workshop - writing a functionally oriented specification
- Workshop - writing a design oriented specification
- Other requirements types
- Annexes, appendices and applicable documents
5. Specification Writing
- Review of requirements quality
- Requirement structural template
- Workshop - expressing strong requirements
- Requirements constructs
- Shall, should, will and may
- Linking
- Cross-referencing
- Workshop - linking and cross-referencing
- defining terms
- Workshop - defining terms
- Context dependence
- Reference to applicable documents
- Use of precedence
- Workshop - using precedence
- Using success criteria to express otherwise vague requirements
- Workshop - using success criteria
- Workshop - specification of key requirements for a system
- Paragraph headings
- Use of supporting data
- Mission profiles/use cases
- Baseline designs
- Benchmarks
- Linking the specification to the statement of work or conditions of contract
- Test specifications
- Workshop - evaluation of example specifications
6. Bibliography
- Additional reference material
About the Presenter - Mr. Robert Halligan, FIE Aust.
Your presenter, Mr Robert Halligan, FIE (Aust), is Managing Director of Project Performance (Australia) Pty Limited. He was also founder of Technology Australia Pty Limited, a consultancy company which received remarkable success in guiding its clients to success in winning and performing on major defence and aerospace projects. Mr Halligan has previously held senior project-related engineering and management positions with Rockwell, Andrew Corporation and the Department of Defence (Australia). Mr Halligan has honed his experience over twenty years in the engineering of large communications, computing and electronic warfare systems...
Specification Writing Course Schedule
Testimonial
"The best thing was the ability of the presenter to teach what could be dry materials in a fun way"
delegate, USA
SADI Funding
Attendance at public courses and on-site delivery in Australia may be eligible for SADI funding.
How to Register
- 1. Fax Download a registration form from the schedule tab and fax it to us on: +61 3 9876 2664 or +1 888 772 5191 in North America
- 2. Online You may register online. This is the simplest method of registration and an invoice is issued to you via email or fax.
- 3. Phone If you prefer, you can provide your registration and payment details via phone. Call us on +61 3 9876 7345, UK +44 20 3286 1995, North America +1 888 772 5174, Brazil +55 3212 2017
Online payment soon to be available.
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