Operational Environment Compatibility Requirements

Definition

An operational environment compatibility requirement is a user-oriented quality requirement that specifies a required amount of operational environment compatibility, which is a quality factor that is defined as follows:

Operational environment compatibility

the degree to which something is able to be used and function correctly under specified conditions of the physical environment(s) in which it is intended to operate.

Objectives

The typical objectives of an operational environment compatibility requirement are to:

• Ensure that the application or component:
  • Is able to operate correctly in a specified physical environment
  • Can be successfully operated due to physical limitations of normal human users (e.g., ability to lift or carry it, especially under those conditions that might require the use of gloves or protective suits).

Measurements

Operational environment compatibility requirements are typically specified in terms of the following measurements:

• TBD.

Examples

The following are typical examples of operational environment compatibility requirements:

• “The application shall function properly when under an accelleration of up to 30g’s.”
• “The application shall function properly when the air pressure is in the range from 0 psi to 28 psi.”
• “The application user interface shall be usable in a sterile operating room.
  Specifically, the application’s user interface shall be able to function properly after being sterilized 500 times.”
• “The application’s water pump shall not corrode in seawater.
  Specifically, the hardware water pump component shall not fail within 5 years due to corrosion when placed in normal sea water at a temperature of between 1° Celsius to 30° Celsius.”
• “The application shall be able to be used under varying light levels up to TBD lumins.”
• “The application shall function properly in a temperature range from -30° Celsius to 50° Celsius.”
• “The application’s user interface components shall be able to survive being dropped.
  Specifically, no more than one hardware user interface component out of 100 shall fail (i.e., suffer noticeable damage) when dropped 5 feet onto a hard, unyielding surface.”
• “The application’s user interface shall not be too heavy for its users to carry in one hand.
  Specifically, the hardware user interface component shall not weigh more than 1.5 kg.”

Guidelines

The following guidelines have been found to be useful when producing operational environment compatibility requirements:

• The scope of an operational environment compatibility requirement can be:
  • A business enterprise
  • An application
  • A component
  • A center
• Not all applications will be used in the relatively safe environment of an office. Whereas embedded applications have long been used in the field (e.g., outdoors, factory floor), many more applications (or parts of applications) are being carried out of the office with the advent of mobile computing and the use of smart phones, smart cards, etc. The ability to withstand environmental hazards is often an important requirement.
• Operational environment compatibility requirements can specify numerous environmental conditions including (but not limited to):
  • Acceleration.
  • Air pressure.
  • Biohazard.
  • Corrosive chemicals (e.g., acids, bases, salt water).
  • Dust levels.
  • Electrical supply characteristics (e.g., alternating vs. direct current, voltage, amperage, cycle rate).
  • Electric field strengths.
  • Humidity.
  • Lighting levels.
  • Magnetic field strengths.
  • Noise levels.
  • Radiation levels.
  • Size (e.g., to ensure transportability, whether by specified vehicle or being lifted and carried by a human user).
  • Temperature ranges.
  • Vibration.
  • Weight.
  • Water existance.
  • Water pressure (or depth).
• Where practical, operational environment compatibility requirements shall be specified quantitatively with explicit units of measure (e.g., amps, pounds per square inch, kilograms, degrees Fahrenheit, etc.).