safety

There are important differences between requirements and specifications. Requirements give specific information about the project (or sub-project) at hand whereas specification give general guidelines to follow. I’ll try to illustrate the distinctions using one of the underdeveloped topics in the Peak Oil Homestead Example Problem: making the Homestead safe for children.

Notice that all ambiguous terms in a requirement must be defined explicitly or by referencing a specification. Also note that not all values are defined in these requirements and specs; there are placeholders that we will fill in with later research.