Specificationwhether

Specificationwhether is a term encountered in some discussions of requirements engineering and formal specification. It denotes a construct for capturing conditional specifications, where the inclusion or implementation of a feature depends on a specified condition. The term draws on the English word whether to signal that the decision to specify a capability is contingent, rather than guaranteed, and aims to improve clarity in documenting conditional requirements.

Definition and semantics: A specificationwhether expression is written as SpecWhether(C, F), where C is a condition (such as a configuration flag, user role, or environmental setting) and F is a feature or requirement. The intended meaning is that F is part of the specification only if C holds; if C is false, F is not required. Some authors treat SpecWhether as equivalent to an if-then requirement, while others use it to distinguish conditional scope during design and verification.

Applications and examples: In practice, specificationwhether can help separate conditional features from core functionality in backlog items or contractual documents. Example: SpecWhether(IsPremiumUser, AdvancedAnalytics) implies AdvancedAnalytics should be specified only for premium users. In a system model, SpecWhether can guide traceability, testing, and configuration management by clarifying when a feature becomes applicable.

Limitations and discussion: Because it relies on natural-language phrasing, specificationwhether risks ambiguity without formal notation. To be effective, it is usually paired with a formal modeling language or a clear taxonomy of conditions. It is not part of major standards, and its adoption varies by organization.

See also: conditional requirements, feature toggle, decision modeling, requirements engineering.