Using the English language for requirements documentation, covering topics such as: • English words can be ambiguous in everyday usage • Do we really say what we mean in English? • How will you write high quality requirements in English? • Strong words to use, and weak words to avoid

1. English
Language In
The Business
Analyst’s World Andris Grunde
From everyday talk to
engineered
requirements
Business Analyst
Presentation to:

2. Where is Philadelphia?

4. Why language?
 Language is the foundation of what we
do.
 Software requirements begin with high
level discussions, but:
 Business Analyst deliverables require
precision.

5. Who are you?
 You are what you write in an online,
email, IM and text message world

6. We are like lawyers
 We function like lawyers in some
respects
◦ Listen to our clients tell us their stories in
their words
◦ Produce documents to specification, using
more precise language
 Business requirements documents
 Process diagrams
 Use cases
 Functional specifications

7. Why English, now?
 FMS sale to Visma should create
need for English language documents
 Business processes and requirements
are communicated internationally in
English.
 But .....
◦ Why English?

8. The Rise of Globish
 From Robert McCrum, Globish, How the
English Language Became the World’s
Language, 2010, W.W. Norton &
Company:
 English is informal.
 Easy to talk about generalities and
everyday topics.
 English is formal.
 Contracts, diplomacy, requirements.

9. Globish
 “The most unexpected thing about the ... world that
followed 1989 was ... widespread enthusiasm for
the language of the surviving superpower. There
are perhaps three reasons for this. First, it made
sound economic sense. Secondly, as we have
seen, English has always had this subversive*
capacity to run with the hare and hunt with the
hounds, to articulate the ideas of both government
and opposition, to be the language of ordinary
people as well as the language of power and
authority, rock ‘n’ roll and royal decree.”
*graujošs
 Robert McCrum, Globish, How the English Language Became the
World’s Language, 2010, W.W. Norton & Company. Page 230.

10. Globish.com *
*No relationship to the book

11. Problems with English
 English is often ambiguous in everyday
natural language.
 We don’t often say what we mean.
 We encode and decode our messages.
◦ “Can you tell me what time it is?”
◦ “What does the clock say?”
 English – can be ambiguous
 Latvian – more precise?

12. More language ......
 Regional and international expressions and
idioms
 Business jargon
◦ “Going forward, .... “
◦ What choice do we have other than ‘going
forward’?
 We use these maybe with a sense of
shared aims or commonality.
 Being too literal can be irritating.

13. Fun with language
 Why are there Interstate highways in
Hawaii?
 Why do we park our car on a driveway and
drive our car on a parkway?
 Why is a boxing ring square?

14. Example from a Client
 “Ineligible” used in natural language
by management to describe some
clients using a service.
 Ineligible actually describes two
different clients:
◦ Have reached their annual usage limit
and complied with business rules.
◦ Have not complied with business rules.

15. Common Industry Situations
 In large US companies with many
divisions:
◦ Two different words or phrases describe
the same business process or rule.
◦ The same word or phrase may describe
two different processes or rules.
 Occurs when one company buys
another; meanings may occur over
time.

16. Same Problems
 NASA study of 40 approved requirement
documents found “many instances of three
common weaknesses”:
 Organization of requirements
 Individual statement structure
 Language used to express requirements.
William M. Wilson, Writing Effective Natural
Language Requirements Specifications, 1999,
Software Assurance Technology Center, NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center.

17. Informal, but ....
 Unfortunately, using natural language, to
construct System Requirement
Specifications (SRS)is still problematic,
even when combined with formal
techniques. Perhaps the main problem is
that natural language is ambiguous, with
many possible interpretations. Another
problem is that a SRS expressed in natural
language may be vague.
M. Osborne, C.K. MacNish, Processing Natural
Language Software Requirement Specifications, 2013,
Cyber Security and Information Systems Information
Analysis Center, The Pennsylvania State University
CiteSeer Archives

18. ‘Gather’ in job descriptions
 “…responsible for gathering business
requirements within a department.”
 “… gathering and documenting
requirements…”
 “Requirements gathering skills (interviewing
business users and functional leaders).”
 “Gathers and documents the detailed
business requirements….”
 One job posting used ‘gather’ four times.

19. Outstanding in his Field

20. Dictionary Definition of Gather
 transitive verb 1 : to bring together : collect <tried to gather a
crowd> <gathered firewood>
2 a : pick, harvest <gather flowers> b : to pick up or amass as if
by harvesting <gathering ideas for the project> c : to scoop up or
take up from a resting place <gathered the child up in his arms>
3 : to serve as an attraction for : accumulate <books gathering
dust>
4 : to effect the collection of <gather contributions>
5 a : to summon up <gathered his courage> b : to gain by
gradual increase <gather speed> c : to prepare (as oneself) by
mustering strength d : to gain or regain control of <gathered his
wits>
6 : to reach a conclusion often intuitively from hints or through
inferences <I gather that you want to leave>
7 a : to pull (fabric) along a line of stitching so as to draw into
puckers b : to draw about or close to something <gathering her
cloak about her> c : to bring together the parts of <gathered her
hair into a ponytail> d : to assemble (the signatures of a book) in
sequence for binding e : to haul in <the sailors gathered the
sails>I
 intransitive verb 1 a : to come together in a body b : to cluster
around a focus of attraction
2 a : to swell and fill with pus b : grow, increase <the gathering

23. No Longer Available
 ARM, Automated Requirement
Measurement tool.
 No longer supported/distributed
 Processed text document, summarized
strong, weak, incomplete, and other words
in the document.

24. ARM Standard Indicators
IMPERATIVE CONTINUANCE DIRECTIVE OPTION WEAK
PHRASES
INCOMPLETES
shall below: e.g. can adequate TBD
must as follows: i.e. may as
appropriate
TBS
is required to following: For example Optionally be able to TBE
are applicable listed: Figure be capable of TBC
are to in particular: Table capability of not defined
responsible
for
support: Note: capability to not
determined
will and effective but not limited
to
should as required as a minimum
normal
provide for
timely
easy to

25. Questions?