Functional requirements

Main Page > System Requirements > Functional requirements

Functional requirements state what the system must be able to do. The requirements provide:

• Parameters for designing the system.
• Criteria for testing the system (used in initial release and future iterations and upgrades).
• Planning guidelines for developing the system (improve existing or add new functionality).
• Documentation for standards compliance (link requirements to relevant international or national descriptive standards)
• A framework for structuring user-end documentation (step-by-step procedures for how to do things in the system).

Functional requirements have been organized around the core functions of repositories holding archival material. ICA-AtoM currently focuses on two functions:

• Intellectual and administrative control (allow repositories to describe archival holdings).
• Search and use (allow researchers to search and use descriptions).

A number of functions remain outside the scope of the current version or are only partially supported. Inclusion of these functions serves primarily as a placeholder for requirements for future development of the system.

• Acquisition (accession material, transfer / capture / ingest objects, track donors, appraise for acquisition, appraise for monetary evaluation).
• Physical control (store and retrieve of objects, manage storage space).
• Preservation (manage strategies for long-term preservation of objects).
• Access administration (provide reference service, deliver access to objects).
• Outreach (exhibit objects, promotion holdings and the repository).

Each functional requirement includes the following information:

• Requirement name.
• Requirement specification (system must do X).
• Requirement quotation (which section of which standard requires that the system do X?).
• Associated metadata requirements (what fields must the system have to do X?).
• Associated usability requirements (what features msut the system have to do X well from a user / interface point of view?).
• ICA-AtoM implementation (how does ICA-AtoM implement X?).
• Associated User Manual sections (links to step-by-step instructions for doing X).