The difference between User Stories and Software Requirements Specifications (SRS), especially for regulated systems (part 1)

It’s getting easier and easier to build unregulated software these days but it’s still pretty hard to create regulated/certified systems such as EHRs, medical device software, and government IT. To help create better systems we all know we need better user requirements; however, “heavyweight requirements” efforts have been shunned, especially in unregulated systems, over the past decade in favor of “user stories” and more agile specifications. But, are agile user stories the best way to go in regulated systems where requirements traceability and safety analysis is a must? I invited Abder-Rahman Ali, currently pursuing his Medical Image Analysis Ph.D. in France, to come back and give us advice on whether there’s room for both user stories and SRSs in regulated industries or if we’re stuck with formal requirements specs. The following is Abder-Rahman’s third installment for this blog and I’m excited he’ll be tackling such an important topic. As always, he can be reached via e-mail or twitter. Here’s what Abder-Rahman says about User Stories vs. Software Requirements Specifications: It was on February, 2001, when seventeen practitioners formed what was called The Agile Manifesto. It seems that since then, we started to hear of the term User Story, although, as will be shown below, it seems that the term appeared before that date. The questions that may pop-up on someone’s head are, is the User Story just a fancy n...
Source: The Healthcare IT Guy - Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Tags: User Experience Software Requirements Specification SRS user stories Source Type: blogs