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Writing and Signing Off the Requirements

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • How to write a clear requirement
  • How to trace requirements to acceptance criteria
  • How to get sign-off

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Defining Acceptance Criteria. You learned how to agree measurable acceptance criteria before building.

1 The Problem: Spoken Agreements Are Forgotten

After two weeks of workshops, much was agreed out loud. But:

  • People remember it differently.
  • Nothing is signed.
  • Design could start on the wrong idea.

🎯 The problem: Spoken agreements are forgotten or remembered differently.

👉 The fix: Write every requirement down, link it to a criterion, and get it signed at gate 1.

Flow from workshop notes to signed requirements.
Figure 1. How workshop notes become signed requirements.

2 Writing a clear requirement

A good requirement says what is needed, not how to build it.

Weak Clear
Discovery should be secure. REQ-DISC-14: Discovery accounts have read-only rights.
Scan everything. REQ-DISC-03: Discover all servers in the Mumbai and London server zones.
Don’t break things. REQ-DISC-09: Never scan 10.10.30.0/24, 10.10.10.250 or 10.10.20.0/22.

3 Tracing and sign-off

  • Give each requirement an ID.
  • Link each to at least one acceptance criterion.
  • Send the document for review, with a deadline.
  • Record who signed and when.

⭐ Remember: A signed requirement can only change through a change request.

4 Project Clear View: How We Implemented It

📍 Situation: Workshops are done. Design starts in week 3.

🧭 Decision: Write, trace and sign the requirements by the end of week 2.

🛠️ Steps we took:

  1. Wrote 26 requirements, REQ-DISC-01 to 26, from the workshop notes.
  2. Linked each to an acceptance criterion.
  3. Sent the document to Hana and Farah, with two days to review.
  4. Fixed their four comments, then got both signatures.

✅ What we verified:

  • Every requirement has an ID and a linked criterion.
  • Hana and Farah signed gate 1.

📁 Evidence: The signed Clear View requirements document (gate 1).

5 Quick recap

  • Write what is needed, not how to build it.
  • Give each requirement an ID and link it to a criterion.
  • Get sign-off before design starts.
  • Signed requirements change only through a change request.

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 Rewrite ‘Discovery should be secure’ as a clear requirement. Show answer

For example: Discovery accounts have read-only rights.

2 Why link requirements to acceptance criteria? Show answer

So testing can prove each requirement was met.

3 Who signed gate 1? Show answer

Hana Kim and Farah Siddiqui.

Nice work! Clear View’s requirements are signed. 🎉
Next up: Why Discovery Depends on a Healthy CMDB

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