Functional specification: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:16, 24 April 2016

Revision as of 18:08, 28 April 2016

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{{software development process}}

A '''functional specification''' (also, ''functional spec'', ''specs'', ''functional specifications document (FSD)'', ''functional requirements specification'', or ''Program specification'') in [[systems engineering]] and [[software development]] is a document that specifies the functions that a system or component must perform (often part of a requirements specification) (ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765-2010).<ref>[http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=50518 ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765:2010 Systems and software engineering — Vocabulary]</ref>

The documentation typically describes what is needed by the system user as well as requested properties of inputs and outputs (e.g. of the [[software]] system). A functional specification is the more technical response to a matching requirements document, e.g. the [[Product requirements document|Product Requirement Document]] "PRD"{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}}. Thus it picks up the results of the [[requirements analysis]] stage. On more complex systems multiple levels of functional specifications will typically nest to each other, e.g. on the system level, on the module level and on the level of technical details.