EARS Templates in QVscribe for Excel

Available to those who have QVscribe for Teams, QVscribe assists authors of requirements based on the Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax (EARS), with both EARS templates and a conformance check against these EARS templates.

Within the QVscribe ribbon, QVscribe for Teams users will have access to an EARS templates button. When you want to author a requirement, you can select an appropriate EARS template from the list.

When a template is selected it will appear at the cursor location on the document. See the example below.

You can then easily fill in the areas in the template to create a well-structured requirement.

All 12 EARS templates are described in detail below.

EARS Type	Description	Template
Event-driven	An Event-driven requirement is activated when a triggering event is detected at the system boundary	WHEN <trigger> the <system name> shall <system response>
Option	An Option requirement is used for systems that include a particular feature	WHERE <feature is included> the <system name> shall <system response>
State-driven	A State-driven requirement is active while some pre-condition remains true	WHILE <pre-condition> the <system name> shall <system response>
Ubiquitous	A Ubiquitous requirement is continually active	The <system name> shall <system response>
Unwanted behaviour	An Unwanted Behaviour requirement defines the required system response to an unwanted external event	IF <trigger> THEN the <system name> shall <system response>
Complex	A Complex requirement contains a combination of the basic EARS patterns	See table 3 below

Complex EARS Template	Label
WHERE <feature is included> WHILE <pre-condition> IF <trigger> THEN the <system name> shall <system response>	Optional feature, state-driven, and unwanted-behaviour
WHERE <feature is included> WHILE <pre-condition> WHEN <trigger> the <system name> shall <system response>	Optional feature, state-driven, and event-driven
WHERE <feature is included> WHILE <pre-condition> the <system name> shall <system response>	Optional feature, and state-driven
WHERE <feature is included> WHEN <trigger> the <system name> shall <system response>	Optional feature, and event-driven
WHERE <feature is included> IF <trigger> THEN the <system name> shall <system response>	Optional feature, and unwanted-behaviour
WHILE <pre-condition> IF <trigger> THEN the <system name> shall <system response>	State-driven, and unwanted-behaviour
WHILE <feature is included> WHEN <trigger> the <system name> shall <system response>	State-driven, and event-driven