Identifying and Describing Problems and Processes

The first step in developing a software system is to identify what it is you’re trying to achieve.

Identifying the Problem

Think of this as identifying the solution, rather that the problem. It can be split into two parts:

• Requirements
• Specification

The requirements are the tasks which the software must be able to perform. It doesn’t matter how it is performed, so long as it is correct. For instance, if you are developing a calculator, you don’t need to know how the user will input the values, but you can be pretty certain that the software must be able to calculate accurately.

The specification is where we get to say how this is going to work. For example, going back to the calculator, the specification may state that:

• The system will give the user a welcome message
• It will prompt for one value to be entered
• It will prompt for an arithmetic operator (+, -, *, /)
• It will prompt for a second value to be entered
• It will display the answer