Chapter 2. Defining Nonfunctional Requirements

The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free?

Alan Kay, in interview with Dr Dobb’s Journal (2012)

If you are building an application, you will be driven by a list of requirements. At the top of your list is most likely the functionality that the application must offer: what screens and what buttons you need, and what each operation is supposed to do in order to fulfill the purpose of your software. These are your functional requirements.

In addition, you probably also have some nonfunctional requirements: for example, the app should be fast, reliable, secure, legally compliant, and easy to maintain. These requirements might not be explicitly written down, because they may seem somewhat obvious, but they are just as important as the app’s functionality: an app that is unbearably slow ...