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I have a requirement listing a few rules and needs in my performance specification. I need to add two rules already covered by two requirements a bit farther in the document in this list.

Can a requirement link to another one? And be valid if the others are met?

Or should I merge the two other requirements in the list for clarity and avoid unnecessary extension of the specification?

An example :

Req 1 - Rules for a working system :
  o the latency MUST be lower than X
  o the priority policy MUST be applied

Req 7 - The priority policy MUST be applied to the systems concerned
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  • I'm having trouble understanding why you would need to add rules that are covered by other requirements. It seems like you are adding unnecessary redundancy to the requirements, which can create some issues if you need to maintain the requirements. Linking can help, but I'm struggling to see why it's necessary and this may be an XY problem. Can you share these specific requirements, or at least a more concrete example?
    – Thomas Owens ♦
    Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 12:11
  • I added an exemple. After some time away I see that the redundancy is unecessary and will lead to version error, like Bogdan said.
    – user161458
    Commented Mar 21, 2022 at 7:37
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    I think Bogdan wrote a good answer. I'll also add, though, that Req 1 is not a well-written requirements. One of the standards for a good requirement is that each requirement is cohesive, which means that it addresses only one thing. Req 1 addresses two things. The set of requirements is the set of rules for a working system, so it would be best to have a requirement regarding the maximum acceptable latency and a second requirement for the priority policy (which would probably refer to a standard, specification, or other document, ideally including version so the document).
    – Thomas Owens ♦
    Commented Mar 21, 2022 at 12:53

2 Answers 2

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Can a requirement be linked to another requirement?

Yes, it can.

Requirements can depend on other requirements. Or some requirement can be derived from another requirement. Requirements can also be reused (business guidelines or rules that can be reused by different solutions within the same domain, for example).

When you have these sorts of relationships between requirements, you can either mention the same information twice or link some place else where the information is already available. Duplicating the information introduces the possibility of errors (one version says something, another version says something else, or one requirement is more up to date than another one which is older, etc.) so linking is preferred when you want to refer to something defined elsewhere. Just make sure there is some form of traceability in place so that you can retrieve all the requirements (i.e. to be clear that some requirement is extended some place else).

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Yes, requirement can be linked to another. Yes, it can be valid if others are met. And Yes, You can either repeat the information (but repetition doesn't necessarily mean that everything is the same; there might be some form of distinction) or provide the location where the information is already available.

Simply ensure that you have some type of traceability in place so you can recover all of the criteria.

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