Technical Requirements (With Definition and List of Examples)

Updated March 10, 2023

Technical requirements, otherwise known as technical specifications or specs, refer to the implemented solutions professionals use to resolve technical problems and issues involving software. Setting clear technical requirements is an essential step in the software and system development process. Learning about technical requirements can provide you with a fundamental understanding of how they work within the software development industry. In this article, we discuss what technical requirements are, why they are important and review 17 examples.

What are technical requirements?

When working on a project or creating software, technical requirements describe the technical aspects and issues that you need to address for the project or software to work and execute successfully. These technical aspects can refer to factors like performance-related concerns, how reliable the software is and how readily accessible it is. Essentially, technical requirements function as solutions to technical issues.For example, you created an online word processing software and developed it so it only works for a specific web browser because of an important integration system that allows your software to function properly on that web browser. In this scenario, having to use the software in a specific browser is the technical requirement.

Why is it important to have technical requirements?

Technical requirements are important because they describe how software should function and what its behavior should be. This helps developers and users to understand the best way to use the software. A document of clearly defined specifications helps to create a project or software that has a proper process for implementation. Developers and other technicians refer to this as technical requirement documentation.The purpose or look of a technical requirement document may vary depending on the specific project, but they need to all perform for the same universal goal. That is, to ensure that the owners of the software and its developers have an established understanding of its future details and project estimations. Project estimations refer to an important part of project planning that involves cost estimates, resource allocating and the duration of development. Knowing what technical requirements you need for your software can help you determine these factors more precisely.Related: Understanding Different Software Testing Methodologies

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17 Technical requirements

Technical requirements vary depending on the product or industry. Though there is no all-encompassing list of technical requirements that apply to every project or development, here is a sample list of 17 technical requirement examples:

Accessibility

Accessibility refers to a technical requirement that seeks to make a service, software or technology accessible to all users and parties. Adding closed captions to a tutorial video for users who are hard of hearing or deaf is an example of an accessibility technical requirement.

Authentication and authorization

This is a technical requirement that states that a system must abide by certain authentication and authorization policies. Authentication refers to assessing data as valid and authorization provides clearance for users to access it.

Availability

Availability is a technical requirement that functions more like a metric. This metric tracks time as a percentage and verifies how long a software or resource is available for users to operate.

Data quality

Data quality is a technical requirement that refers to data and information that is of a certain quality. Ideally, you want high-quality data that you can use for operational and decision-making processes.

Human error

This is a technical requirement where software can detect when people have inputted inaccurate information. If the software detects this error, it notifies the user and advises them to fix the discrepancy.

Information security

This technical requirement refers to the encryption and security of user credentials and personal private information within an online storage base or transit system. This level of security would also involve a requirement for encrypting highly classified information as well.

Internal controls

The internal controls technical requirement means that only certain users can access the decryption keys for encrypted user and highly classified data. These individuals, called data stewards, can only access the data when a higher official allows it.

Interoperability

The interoperability technical requirement states that software must offer comprehensive compatibility. This means that it needs to work on all the major operating systems, web browsers and technical devices. These requirements may function based on the technology needs of customers.

Maintainability

Maintainability simply means that software must maintain its integrity. To elaborate, a system needs to identify and resolve technical problems in a set timeframe. Most repairs need to resolve in only an hour.

Performance

The performance technical requirement determines average wait times and how long it takes for software or a page to load. For example, it is best practice to set a technical requirement for loads times to exceed only two seconds.Read more: 4 Examples of Key Performance Metrics To Track

Privacy

Privacy refers to protecting a customer's sensitive data from internal data professionals and employees. For example, a privacy technical requirement may not allow employees to view a customer's social security number stored within a customer database.

Productivity

The productivity technical requirement refers to processes that allow users to be more productive. For example, creating a system that auto generates data so users can skip inputting data multiple times.Read more: How To Calculate Productivity

Reliability

Reliability refers to the average time that a system or software operates between downtimes or failures. This a metric that averages the time for applications and services that are critical to operations.Related: What Is a Reliability Engineer?

Serviceability

Serviceability is an important technical requirement because most software and systems undergo regular updates or some kind of modification. This technical requirement states systems must not completely shut down when software upgrades or changes.

Standards

The standards technical requirement states that a system or software must follow and comply with the security and architectural requirements. This refers to how to design and structure a system for flexibility, reusability and feasibility.

System errors

When a system has an error, this technical requirement causes an error code to communicate this discrepancy with the user. The error code gets documented within a help database and helps the user service the incident to a swift resolution.

Vendor lock-in

Vendor lock-in is a technical requirement that means software or system is open-sourced. Open-sourced software means that it is not owned by a proprietary or private company, but is available to be manipulated with custom code by any user.