Although the standard contractual model is often used to describe the relationship between a customer and software supplier, it is unfortunately the case that the contract can be fulfilled without doing what the user really wanted. Building the right system and, even before that, understanding what the right system should do is often a formidable task for both sides of the contract. Nor can the proper marriage of requirements to programs be satisfied by post hoc changes to the requirements or documenting problems as if they were features. What is needed is to make sure that the customer is fully aware of requirements and, possibly more importantly, the consequences of those requirements. This paper discusses some of the general points in this area, illustrated by reference to one particular project the UK ALVEY "FOREST" Software Engineering project concerning formal requirements specification.

Inspec keywords: contracts; formal specification; software development management; project management; customer satisfaction

Other keywords: contractual model; program requirements; automated support; UK ALVEY FOREST software engineering project; software supplier; formal requirements specification

Subjects: Software management; Software engineering techniques; Programming support