Incomplete: Missing object

IBM® Engineering Requirements Quality Assistant (RQA) message: This requirement is incomplete because the person or thing that receives the action is missing or unclear. Rewrite the requirement to clearly identify the object of the action.

Explanation

Each requirement must clearly include an actor, an action, and the object of the action.

A requirement communicates a function that someone or something (actor) performs (action) on someone or something (object). Without an object, a requirement is incomplete.

Example

Consider the following requirement:

  • The XYZ downloader will download 5 GB of data in 30 seconds.

This requirement is flagged for the missing object issue.

To eliminate the missing object issue, you can rewrite the requirement as follows:
  • The XYZ downloader will download 5 GB of data in 30 seconds when a user will press option 1.
The XYZ downloader is the actor, will download is the action, and option 1 is the object.

This version is complete because it specifies an object.