Resolving Conflicting Requirements

Two stakeholders can request behaviors that cannot both hold at the same time. That is a conflict between requirements.

This differs from ambiguity. An ambiguous requirement can be understood in more than one way. A conflict occurs when two clear requests are incompatible. Clarifying the wording may expose the conflict, but it cannot resolve it.

HopPress may face conflicts as its stakeholders describe their needs:

• Central approval versus school autonomy: Central communications may want every public post reviewed by a central editor, while a school’s communications staff may want to publish local announcements without waiting for central approval.
• Fast corrections versus editorial control: Authors may want to correct a factual error in a published post immediately, while editors may require every change to a published post to be reviewed first.
• University identity versus outside contributors: University IT may want HopPress to accept only university-managed accounts, while communications staff may want invited journalists, partner organizations, or guest contributors to submit material.
• Shared platform versus local customization: Central communications may want one publishing workflow and presentation style, while schools and departments may need different fields, workflows, or layouts for their audiences.

In each pair, both goals are legitimate, but the system cannot satisfy both requests as stated. Someone responsible for the product must decide which requirement controls, whether the rule applies generally or only under specified conditions, and what trade-off the university accepts.

Consider the first conflict. If central approval controls, every public post must pass through a central editor before publication. Schools can still prepare local announcements, but those announcements may take longer to publish. The university gains consistent oversight and accepts slower local publication.

The same kind of decision applies to the other conflicts. The point is that a careful requirement elicitation process will expose conflicts, and those conflicts must be resolved so the final requirements specification document is consistent.