Functional requirements

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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 (support arrangement and description of archival holdings).
• Search and use (support search and use of descriptions by researchers).

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 material, track donors, appraise for acquisition, appraise for monetary evaluation).
• Physical control (store and retrieve archival material, manage storage space).
• Preservation (implement strategies for long-term preservation of archival material).
• Access administration (provide reference service, deliver access to archival material).
• Outreach (exhibit objects, promote holdings, repositories, and the archival profession).

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).