What differentiates functional requirements from non-functional requirements?

Functional requirements and non-functional requirements serve distinct but complementary purposes in the development of a system. Functional requirements specifically describe what the system should do, detailing the functionalities, features, and capabilities that a system must provide. These requirements often include various actions, tasks, and processes that the system must perform to meet user needs.

On the other hand, non-functional requirements outline how the system performs its functions. They characterize the quality attributes of the system, such as performance, reliability, scalability, security, and usability. Non-functional requirements are crucial because they influence user satisfaction and system performance, even though they don't specify particular behavior or functions like functional requirements do.

Understanding this distinction is essential for business analysis because it helps in clearly defining the system's capabilities while also considering the essential quality attributes that dictate how well those capabilities should perform in practice. By emphasizing the differences in focus—features and tasks for functional requirements versus performance and quality criteria for non-functional requirements—this option effectively captures the essence of the two types of requirements.