2. Overview of the documents

The Requirements Specification

This is written towards the end of the investigation and analysis stage where the analyst and the users have reached an understanding about what the new system should contain and what it should be capable of doing.

The analyst will be working with the users to develop this specification. Various tools will be used such as Interviews, Questionnaires, Observation

The requirements specification details exactly what the system is supposed to do and how users will actually interact and use the system

The Design Specification

This document is written at the beginning of the design stage. It covers exactly how the system should work, how it will look and how people will interact with it.

The developer will follow the design specification exactly in order to produce the system that is required.

The System Specification

The system specification is also written during the design stage. This document contains the technical details such as the software and hardware that will be used to develop and run the system. It will also contain details of any additional systems / databases which will be needed to create the system