Non-Functional Requirements in Jira: Where NFRs Live (and How to Write One)
Non-functional requirements like speed, security and uptime get lost because they are not features. Give a shop-wide NFR its own story with a number you can test, mark it NFR so one search finds them all, and put one-story rules in that story's acceptance criteria.
Step by step
What an NFR is
- NFRs in Jira. Non functional requirements say how well the system works. How fast, how safe, how often it is up. They are not features, so they often get lost. Let me show you where they live in Jira.
- Create. This is the backlog of our online shop. A rule for the whole shop gets its own story. Click create.
- Pick Story. Click the work type, and pick story, so the team sizes it and plans it like any other work.
Write the NFR
- Mark it NFR. Start the summary with NFR, so everyone spots it. Then the rule. Product pages load in under two seconds.
- Name the quality. In the description, name the kind of quality first. This one is about performance.
- Give it a number. Then make it measurable. Fast is not a requirement. Ninety five out of a hundred pages in under two seconds, with five hundred shoppers online, is.
- How we test it. And how the team will prove it. A load test before every release.
- Create. Click create.
Find them all
- In the backlog. The NFR sits in the backlog with the stories, so it gets planned, not forgotten. Click it to open it.
- Give it a number. The number is right there on the story. Testers know exactly what passes and what fails.
- One search. Because every summary starts with NFR, one search lists them all. Here is the search page, looking for NFR in the summary. There it is. As you add more, for security or uptime, they all show up here in one list.
Recap
- Where NFRs live. So, a rule for the whole system gets its own story, marked NFR. Give it a number and a test. A rule for just one feature goes in that story's acceptance criteria.
