{"id":62,"date":"2025-12-24T17:37:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T01:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/?p=62"},"modified":"2026-09-24T11:49:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:49:49","slug":"who-owns-the-srs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/?p=62","title":{"rendered":"Who should own the SRS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019ve got the confidence of a lion and the audacity of a squirrel\u2026 but you can\u2019t own this. &#8211; Anonymous<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This question keeps coming up, so let\u2019s settle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Software Requirements Specification defines the WHAT; the behaviors, constraints, and obligations the software must satisfy.  It\u2019s the launch point for every downstream activity: algorithms, architecture, UI, trade studies, verification strategy.  It frames the problem space before software starts solving it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The SRS needs to be owned by the group responsible for defining intent without bias, whether it&#8217;s systems engineering, product engineer, requirements engineer, or whatever your org call it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Giving software ownership of the SRS is a textbook conflict of interest.  It&#8217;s essentially saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;Please define what you&#8217;re supposed to build&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;Then decide how you&#8217;ll build it&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;And while you&#8217;re at it, influence what gets verified&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s just ask the student to write their own exam, grade it, and then declare themselves valedictorian.  What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve got the confidence of a lion and the audacity of a squirrel\u2026 but you can\u2019t own this. &#8211; Anonymous This question keeps coming up, so let\u2019s settle it. The Software Requirements Specification defines the WHAT; the behaviors, constraints, and obligations the software must satisfy. It\u2019s the launch point for every downstream activity: algorithms, architecture, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-requirements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266,"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grumpyoldengineer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}