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If you don't know what you require and don't document it, you're going to
get whatever someone thinks you require. Process engineers sometimes
mistakenly believe control engineers should be able to develop
automation/control logic based on the content of piping and
instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs).
Mark T. Hoske
06/01/2006
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AT A GLANCE
Batch and
process control
Software
development
Architectures
and objects
System analysis
or design
System
integration
Sidebars:
Building a functional
specification
If you don't know what you require and don't document it, you're
going to get whatever someone thinks you require. Process
engineers sometimes mistakenly believe control engineers should be
able to develop automation/control logic based on the content of
piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs). Fortunately, tools can
help develop functional specifications—detailed blueprints for
creating automation and related programming.
Too much detail is not good either. Just like a project that can grow
beyond bounds, a functional specification can also get out of hand.
The Electric Power Research Institute recommends the following
elements in defining the scope. EPRI says the functional specification
should include specific information about each functional requirement
of the software, and describe for each functional requirement:
Purpose —What the function is intended to accomplish;
Input —What inputs will be accepted, in what format they will arrive,
their sources, and other input characteristics;
Standard modularization
Tools to help
Additional resources
Links to other resources on functional specifications include the
following.
A related category in the Control Engineering buyer’s online guide,
at www.controleng.com , is “Computer Software, Product Selection
and Specification,” which returns 35 companies
at www.cesuppliersearch.com .
Equipment modules;