A Software Requirements Specification

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
1.2 Scope
1.3 Definitions, acronyms, and abbreviations
1.4 References
1.5 Overview
2. Overall description
2.1 Product perspective
2.2 Product functions
2.3 User characteristics
2.4 Constraints
2.5 Assumptions and dependencies
3. Specific requirements
3.1 External interface requirements
3.1.1 User interfaces
3.1.2 Hardware interfaces
3.1.3 Software interfaces
3.1.4 Communication interfaces
3.2 Functional requirements
3.3 Performance requirements
3.4 Design constraints
3.5 Software system attributes
4. Appendices

Software Requirements Specification
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose: -
The purpose of this software requirements specification document is to capture
necessary information from the client regarding the development of “job searching
software system”.
The intended audience of this document is the client, “Ans Mehmood”.
1.2 Scope: -
The scope of this document is to fully document the software requirements of
“job searching software system” using the Software Requirements Specifications format
in accordance with IEEE Std 830-1998. The implementation of this document will be
carried out at a later date.
The scope of this project is twofold. Firstly, to help leading companies of the
country to scavenge for skilled employees. And secondly, to guide competent employees
in finding good jobs for them. The basic idea is as follows.
A company will be asked a number of questions. And the company’s requirements
will be evaluated based on the answers provided by the company. In the same manner the
candidate will be asked to fill in various fields. Information received from those fields
will be used to evaluate a candidates worth.
The major advantages of implementing this idea are as follows: -
1) Companies will be able to save a lot of overhead in terms of time and money
which they otherwise spend for the initial screening process.
2) Job seekers will have a common platform by which they will be able to search for
jobs which meet their desires and match their aptitudes. Otherwise the job seekers
would have to do all the job hunting by themselves without a clear guideline on as
what to do.
1.3 Definitions, acronyms, and abbreviations: -
JSS Job Searching Software.
2

VectorSol The virtual client Ans Mehmood.
Filtration If any of the attributes of a candidate does not match the
requirements of a specific company’s specific job then the
candidate will be considered ineligible for getting that job in that
particular company.
OS Operating system.
Candidate A person who will avail the services of our client (Mr. Ans
Mehmood) for searching an appropriate job.
Company A company which will avail the services of our client (Mr. Ans
Mehmood) for the selection of the candidates for its job openings.
He/she Represent any person regardless of his or her sex.
Flag An indicator depicting the status of something.
Database A text file in which the data will be saved.
Weightage An integer entered by a company, which will be used to calculate
the priority of a company for a particular scoring factor. The value
of the integer will remain between zero to one hundred. Sum of
weightages of all scoring factors will not exceed one hundred. If a
company does not provide a weightage for a scoring factor then a
default value of 25 will be used for that weightage factor.
1.4 References: -
1. IEEE Recommended practice for Software Requirements Specifications,
IEEE Std 830-1998.
2. Pressman, R. S., “Software Engineering,” Mc Graw Hill, 1994, pp. 263.
1.5 Overview: -
This Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) is based on the IEEE Std. 830-
1998, IEEE Recommended Practice for Software Requirements Specifications. The
document is organized in the following structure:
 Overall Description
o Product Perspective
3

o Product Functions
o User Characteristics
o Constraints
o Assumptions and Dependencies
 Specific Requirements
o External Interface requirements
o Functional requirements
o Performance Requirements
o Design Constraints
o Software System Attributes
 Appendices
2. Overall description
2.1 Product perspective: -
The purpose of the JSS is to collect information from various companies
and candidates to evaluate their requirements. And then, based on these requirements they
are provided with a certain course of action. For instance, the companies can be provided
with a list of candidates who are competent enough to work with them. Similarly the
candidates may be provided with a list of companies for which they are eligible. The net
result of this is that both, the companies and the candidates end up with a wide range of
options to choose from.
Information provided by a company is used to evaluate the requirements of that
company in terms of kind of employees it requires. Similarly, information provided by a
candidate is used to evaluate his/her skills and expertise.
The kinds of information which have to be provided by both companies and
candidates are discussed in sub-section 2.2.
Once the desired information is received the JSS should store that information in
appropriate files. Of course the mere information obtained in the form of data is not
useful to the client unless some operations are not performed on it. The JSS should be
able to manipulate the data by applying various mathematical formulae and equations and
4

some decision support tools on the data so as to classify its findings. The description of
these formulae and tools are incorporated in the later sections of the document.
2.2 Product Functions: -
The basic requirements as interpreted by the client are as follows.
Firstly there will be two types of inputs to the software, namely candidate’s input
and company’s input. The input provided by a candidate will be used to evaluate his
expertise and skill. Whereas the input provided by the company will be used to evaluate
its requirements.
Secondly, after having received the inputs from various sources, every candidate will be
evaluated for a company by various scoring and filtration mechanisms. The scoring and
filtration mechanisms are described in detail here-to-forth. First let us have a look at what
kind of data will have to be provided (as an input) by both a company and a candidate.
Client’s Requirements: -
The candidate will be asked to provide details about him which will be entered in
the following fields.
a) Name: -
Name of the candidate will be entered.
b) Age: -
Age of the candidate will be entered.
c) Gender: -
Gender of the candidate will be entered.
d) E-mail: -
E-mail of the candidate will be entered.
e) Qualification: -
Qualification of the candidate will be entered.
f) Experience: -
Experience of the candidate will be entered. e.g. in years or months.
g) Institute: -
5

Name of the institution of the candidate from where he/she has graduated will be
entered
h) Preferred region: -
The candidate will be asked to choose three options from a given list of
regions. The regions specified by the client are Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, NWFP, and
Federal capital. The options provided by the candidate will be entered.
The list of available regions can further be extended.
i) Job domain: -
The candidate will be asked to select a job domain from a given list. Currently the
job domains available are Information technology (IT), Human resource management
(HR), Marketing, Finance, and Engineering. Information provided by the candidate
will be entered.
The list of job domains can be further extended or modified.
Company Input: -
The company will be asked to provide details about it. With some of the details
the company will be asked to enter a weightage. The details will be filled in the following
fields: -
a) Company name: -
Name of the company will be entered.
b) E-mail: -
E-mail of the company will be entered.
c) Job domain: -
Job domain in which the company wants to hire people will be entered.
d) Job title: -
The job title for which the position is available will be entered.
e) Qualification: -
The desired level of education corresponding to the position available will be entered.
f) Experience: -
The desired level of experience (of the candidate) will be entered.
g) Region: -
6

The company tells about the region in which the position is available. The list of
regions has already been provided above. Name of the region will be entered.
h) Age range: -
Age range of the candidates required by the company will be entered.
i) Preferred gender: -
The company will give details about the preferred gender of the candidate.
The company will have five options from which it will select one. These are Male,
Female, Males preferred, Females preferred, both equally preferred. The option
chosen by the company will be entered.
j) Institutions: -
The company will provide with a list consisting of five institutions and
their respective rankings in its own point of view. This information will be entered.
With the following options the company will be asked to enter the weightage as
well. Weightage has been described in section 1.3.
1) Preferred region.
2) Experience.
3) Preferred gender.
4) Institution.
Filtration Criteria: -
Once the JSS will obtain information from both, the companies and the candidates, it
will carry out its inherent filtration process.
Filtration is described by the client as, “if any of the attributes of a candidate does not
match the requirements of a specific company’s specific job then the candidate will be
considered ineligible for getting that job in that particular company”.
Following parameters are used for the filtration process.
a) Gender: -
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Those candidates who will not be of the gender specified for a particular job by a
company will be considered ineligible for that particular job of the company
company.
For instance if a company has asked for male candidates and the candidate is a
female, then that candidate is simply considered ineligible for that job.
Exception to this criterion is the partial preference given to a gender by a specific
company. In this case the candidates are scored for that company.
b) Age: -
A company will provide an age range for a particular job. If the age of a candidate
does not fall in that age range then he will be considered ineligible for that particular
job of the company.
c) Experience: -
A company provides the required amount of experience for a particular job. If a
candidate has less than half the experience desired by a company then he/she is
considered ineligible for that company.
d) Preferred region: -
If none of the three options of the preferred regions provided a candidate meet the
region (of the post) provided by a company then the candidate is considered ineligible
for that company.
e) Qualification: -
If the qualification of a candidate does not match the qualification required by the
company for a particular job then a candidate will be considered ineligible for that
particular job of the company.
8

D o e s t h e g e n d e r
m a tc h ? ( m / f )
Y e s
F ilt r a t io n S t a r t s
h e r e
Is th e a g e in th e
s p e c if ie d lim it s ?
Y e s
Is th e e x p e r ie n c e m o r e t h a n o r e q u a l
to th e h a lf o f t h e r e q u ir e d e x p e r ie n c e ?
Y e s
D o e s a n y o f t h e c h o ic e s o f p r e f e r r e d
r e g io n o f c a n d id a te m a t h w it h t h e
r e g io n o f t h e c o m p a n y 's jo b ?
Y e s
D o e s t h e q u a lific a t io n
m a tc h ?
Y e s
T h e c a n d id a t e is
e lig ib le fo r s c o r in g
n o w
T h e c a n d id a t e is filt e r e d
o u t
N o
N o
N o
N o
N o
9
Flow chart depicting the major
elements of filtration process.

Scoring Criteria: -
Scoring will be done for those candidates who have successfully passed through
the filtration process.
a) region Preferred: -
If a candidate’s one of the preferred regions matches with the region of a company
in which a position is available, then that candidate will be awarded points for that
company. Scoring will be done according to the priority of the candidate. If his/her
first choice matches with the company’s requirement then he will be awarded 100
percent points. Else if, his second choice matches with the company’s choice then he
will be awarded 75 percent points. Where as, if his third choice matches with the
company’s choice then he will be awarded 50 percent points.
b) Experience: -
If a candidate has experience between fifty percent to seventy five percent of
the experience required by a company then he will be awarded 50 percent points.
Where as, if he has experience between seventy five percent to hundred percent of the
experience required then he will be awarded 75 points. And if he has experience equal
to or more than the required experience then he will be awarded 100 points.
c) Preferred gender: -
If a company prefers a male for a particular position and a candidate is also a
male then he will be awarded 100 points, and vice versa. Where as, if the company
prefers a female and a candidate is a male then he will be awarded 50 points, and vice
versa.
d) Institution: -
Every company will provide its own ranking for a particular institution. A
candidate belonging to a particular institution will be awarded points based on the
ranking of the institution provided by that company.
Required Output: -
After evaluating candidates for a particular job of a company, the client will be
able to do the following.
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1) The client will be able to send a list of successful candidates for a particular job to the
company.
2) The client will then select those candidates who have scored maximum points and
send notifications to them and tells them about the interview date, venue etc.
3) The client should be able to send a notification to those candidates who have either
been filtered out or have not been called for interview by any company
2.3 User Characteristics: -
The sole user of the software is the client (Ans Mehmood). Ans Mehmood is a
young and dynamic IT professional who has recently graduated from LUMS (a
renowned institution of the country). So the question as to whether he will be able
to use the software with sufficient ease or not is out of scope of this discussion
(provided that the software itself works correctly).
2.4 Constraints: -
Time: -
Time is the major constraint in developing JSS, all the deliverables have to
be issued on the specified deadlines.
2.5 Assumptions and dependencies: -
It will be assumed that the JSS will be operated under expert supervision.
No one will misuse the JSS intentionally.
3. Specific requirements: -
3.1 External interface requirements: -
3.1.1 User interfaces: -
User will interact with the system through console with the help of a
keyboard. The user will either be asked relevant questions or he will be provided
11

with various options at various steps. These questions and options will guide him
to perform his tasks.
3.1.2 Hardware interfaces: -
The minimum hardware requirements for JSS are cited below. However,
better the hardware better will be the performance of JSS.
a) Processor: - Pentium
b) Memory: - 16MB
c) Secondary storage space: - 100 kilo bytes.
3.1.3 Software interfaces: -
JSS will directly interact with the operating system on which it will run.
A list of compatible operating systems in provided below.
1) MS-DOS OS.
2) Any version of Unix OS.
3) Any version of windows OS.
4) Linux OS.
3.1.4 Communication interfaces: -
The client will be required to have an e-mailing facility by which he could
communicate with his clientele. However, the facility will not be an integral part
of the JSS.
3.2 Functional requirements: -
Once the client runs the program, the system provides him with three options to
choose from which are as following.
3.2.1) Input data.
3.2.2) Evaluate results.
3.2.3) View Results.
3.2.1 Input Data: -
This option will enable the candidate to manage data coming from various
sources i.e. companies and candidates.
12

By choosing this option the client will again be prompted to choose two
options i.e. either to input company data or to input candidate data. By choosing
either of the two options the client will be prompted to fill in various relevant
fields discussed above in subsection 2.2.
The software will then save the data for each complete entry in a
relevant database.
3.2.2 Evaluate Data: -
By choosing this option the client will evaluate the candidate data against a
particular job of a particular company which will be represented by a unique job ID.
And a job ID belonging to one company will not be shared by another company.
Once the client will choose this option he will be prompted to enter a job ID.
After this the process will be internally handled by various modules of the JSS
which are described below in the order of execution.
a) Filter Candidate: -
When the client will enter the job ID, the relevant company data corresponding to
that job ID will be picked up. Information about all the candidates will be compared
to this company data one by one. The candidates whose credentials will not fulfill any
of the “essential requirements” (the requirements discussed in section 2.2 under the
heading of filtration) of the company’s that particular job will be simply filtered out.
The information about the filtered out candidates will be passed to the “manage
processed data” module. The information about the candidates who get through the
filtration successfully will be forwarded to the “score candidate” phase.
b) Score Candidate: -
As discussed earlier, the successful candidates from the filtration module are
then going to be scored according to the scoring criteria discussed in the subsection
2.2. And evidently after scoring each candidate will then have a score. Information
about the scored candidates and their respective scores will then be forwarded to the
“manage processed data” module for further processing.
c) Manage Processed Data: -
This module will receive information about both, the filtered out candidates and
of the scored candidates. The information about the filtered out candidates will be
13

distinguished from the information about scored candidates with the help of a flag
indicating their status. Whereas the information about the scored candidates will have
their scores attached with them. The information about all the candidates will then be
stored into various databases as under.
a) The information about the candidates who have the same preferred regions
will be grouped together in one database.
b) The information about the candidates who belong to the same job domain
will be grouped together in one database.
c) The information about the candidates who have applied for the same
company will be grouped together in one database.
d) The information about the candidates who have applied for the same job
ID will be grouped together in one database.
d) Process Scored And Filtered Candidates: -
A company will provide a threshold value for a particular job. The information
about all the candidates who have applied for that job will be picked up. Based on the
threshold value the information will be picked up for those candidates who have
obtained the maximum scores. This information will be separated from the
information of the rest of the candidates.
This processing will allow the candidate to send information about the successful
candidates to the company later. This will also allow the client to inform successful
candidates about their success and interview dates and venues. The unsuccessful
candidates will also be sent information about their status.
3.2.3) View Results: -
Once the client has evaluated all the results he should then be able to view
them. By selecting this option he will become able to view his results.
3.3 Performance requirements: -
3.3.1 Response time: -
Once the software receives an application it will not take more than thirty
seconds to resolve the results.
14

3.3.2 Capacity: -
The maximum number of applications will be limited only by the capacity
of the hard disk (secondary storage device) of the system on which JSS will be
installed; there will be no upper limit inherent in the JSS as such.
3.4 Design constraints: -
a) Software Language: -
All coding will be done in standard C or C++ using visual development
environment.
b) Development Approach: -
The coding will be done using structural programming approach.
3.5 Software system attributes: -
Some of the salient features of JSS are listed below.
 Low response time.
 Efficient and correct evaluation of results.
 User friendly.
 Bug free.
3.6 Appendices: -
While interviewing the client for requirements, we recorded a magnetic
audio cassette in order to capture requirements in a better way. The cassette is
attached with the document as an appendix.
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A Software Requirements Specification

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