Systems Thinking
Requirements & Systems
13 minStudent plan
Turning a vague wish into something testable, and managing the interfaces where most real failures happen.
After this lesson you can
- Write a requirement that can be tested
- Define an interface between two modules
- Tell verification from validation
A requirement must be testable
"The robot should be reliable" cannot be passed or failed, so it is not a requirement, it is a hope.
"The robot shall operate for 8 hours on one charge at 20 °C, completing at least 200 pick cycles" can be measured. Anyone can tell you afterwards whether it was met.
Good requirements state what, not how: they define the outcome and leave the solution to the designer. And they separate the essential from the desirable, because when the schedule slips, and it will, you need to know which items can go without turning the product into something nobody asked for.
In the full lesson
- A requirement must be testable
- Interfaces are where things break
- Verification and validation
This lesson comes with the Student plan. The first module of Engineering Foundations is free.