Glossary · Requirements and interfaces
System requirement
German: Systemanforderung
In systems engineering, a system requirement is a derived, verifiable requirement for system behavior or performance. It translates stakeholder needs into technical terms against which the system can be designed and verified.
- Systems engineering
- Verification
In one sentence
A system requirement is a derived, verifiable statement of system behavior or performance, traced back to stakeholder needs and forward to tests.
Example
The stakeholder need “safe blade change” becomes the system requirement “The slitter shall prevent blade rotation while the blade guard is open, with PL d”, verified by test.
How it applies
- Derivation: Trace each system requirement back to a stakeholder requirement, a hazard or a standard, and forward to design elements and tests.
- Verification: A system requirement needs a verification criterion and a method (test, analysis, inspection, demonstration). Verification checks the system against it.
- Machine safety: Safety requirements from the risk assessment become system requirements with integrity targets and timing, so they can be allocated to subsystems.
- Technical documentation: Requirements for warnings, instructions and labels can be system requirements too, verified by review against the delivered documentation.
System requirement vs. stakeholder requirement
Stakeholder requirements state needs in the stakeholders' terms. System requirements are the engineering answer: precise, verifiable and allocated.