What about the non-functionals?
Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are the poor, ugly sisters to the functional requirements. They are often left out, or worse written in wooly and non SMART terms; “the website shall be available 24/7”. Is this what happened with HMRC? The website that allows UK citizens to complete their tax returns on-line has gone down, just as the deadline looms. I wonder if this is a case of the non-functional requirements around performance, scalability volumes etc being forgotten about or just not tested for. Inexcusable really.
[…] Dr. Pepper said that they’d give a free Soda to all Americans if Guns’n’Roses released their new album this year. They did and the drinks company held up their promise, setting up a website offering a free coupon for 24 hours (if you signed up). They turned a throw away comment to their advantage and this could have been great PR. Only they didn’t predict the volumes that would hit the site, it couldn’t handle the traffic and went down for most of the day. Cue panic extension of the offer, unhappy customers, unhappy Axel Rose, PR disaster and lawyers on the prowl. If only they’d remembered to think about NFRs. […]