TABLE OF CONTENTS A specification is a document that contains requirements. It is written to cover the requirements for a specific product item or process. Requirements are necessary characteristics for an item or process, identified prior to crafting a design responsive to those requirements. A specification, therefore, provides a definition of the design problem. Synthesis is the solution to a problem defined in a specification.
A specification is a published list of requirements for the design or the fabrication, assembly, and manufacture, or procurement of an object in a prescribed format. It is a detailed statement of particulars about an object, setting forth characteristics or attributes that must be controlled. A specification captures in one place the requirements identified for an object through the process we have called "requirements analysis."
There are many kinds of specifications, but they fit into two broad classifications at the top of the hierarchy, program-peculiar and general. When the latter are called or referenced in a program-peculiar specification, they are called "applicable documents," and they are relevant to that application. First we will explore the program-peculiar specification variety. Later we will explore applicable documents that contain general requirements that can be made to apply to the products developed on any program by a referencing mechanism in program-peculiar specifications, essentially...
