Non-Functional Requirements
Non-functional requirements are, but not limited to:
- Performance
- Load
- Data volume
- Concurrent users
- SLA & etc.
Performance
System must be fast. But fast is relative term. If there is an end user fast means requests taking less than 1 sec. On the other side if we are working B2B, fast can mean less than 100ms.
Latency
How much time does it take to perform a single task?
Throughput
How many tasks can be performed in a given time unit?
Latency VS Throughput
| Type | Duration |
|---|---|
| Latency | 1second |
| Throughput | - Well designed app: > 1000 |
| - Badly designed app: < 60 |
Load
Quantity of work we can perform without crushing. (It depends on application type) E.g: WebAPI -> Number of concurrent requests we can handle without crashing.
Load VS Throughput
| Type | Value |
|---|---|
| Throughput | 100 requests/sec |
| Load | 500 requests without crashing |
| For e-commerce app it can be ~200 concurrent request, but system must be available on Black Fridays. So, we must be ready for ~2000 concurrent requests. |
Data Volume
-
How much data the system will accumulate over time
-
Helps with:
- Deciding on Database type
- Designing queries
- Storage planning
-
Two aspects:
- Data required on “Day One”
- Data growth over time
Concurrent users
- How many users will use system simultaniously
Concurrent users VS Load
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Concurrent Users | Including “Dead times” |
| Load | Actual requests |
For example, user requests for all products in category. Service handles request. After this for 5 minute user will be looking at this data. This duration is counted as “Dead Time” and appropriate user is included in concurrent users.
For average system, Concurrent = Load x 10
SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Required uptime for the system
Cloud providers are mostly competing in this field. For example, SLA for Azure Cosmos DB is notes as 99.99% This means less than an hour per year:
24 * 365 = 8760 hrs/year
8760 * 99.99% = 8759.12
________________________
8760 - 8759.12 = 0.88 hrs/year
Conclusion
- Define what the system will have to deal with
- Performance, SLA, Load and etc.
- Client won’t be able to define them
- Never begin working without Non-Functional requirements defined