Developing Operational Requirements

Express operational requirements as a set of functional requirements with straightforward goals. Typically, you create operational specifications for areas such as:

• End-user functionality

• Reduced response time

• Availability and uptime

• Reduced error rate

• Information archival and retention

Express operational requirements in measurable terms that all stakeholders can understand. Avoid ambiguous language, such as “adequate end-user response time.” Examples of operational requirements could be the following:

• Ability to restore services within 10 minutes of an outage

• Ability to replay the last 48 hours of inbound message delivery

• Online transactions completed within 60 seconds during peak periods

• End-user authentication completed within four seconds during peak periods