Functional requirements for an information system are best defined as?

• A. The data security policies of the organization.
• B. The attributes of the system as a whole or its environment.
• C. Those processes that you want a system to perform.
• D. The requirements needed for the hardware to function.

Answer: (C)

Functional requirements describe the actions the information system must be able to perform. They specify the tasks or processes the system should carry out in response to user input or events—things like entering data, updating records, running calculations, or generating reports. This is why the option that states the processes you want the system to perform best captures what functional requirements are.

By contrast, data security policies relate to protecting information and are considered nonfunctional or governance requirements. Describing the system’s attributes or environment speaks to nonfunctional characteristics or constraints rather than specific behaviors. Hardware requirements concern the physical infrastructure needed to run the system and are also nonfunctional considerations. For example, a functional requirement would be “the system shall generate a patient discharge summary,” while a nonfunctional one would be “the system shall enforce role-based access control.”