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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/6455
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

With requirements, shall / shall not. Nothing else. "Shall" is a very specific; it's a keyword I can search for. Must, must not, will, will not: That's for the explanatory text. (And no shalls in the explanatory text. That defeats making "shall" a search term.)

How not to do it: I helped write a proposal long ago where the RFP had shall requirements, should requirements, shall options, and should options. What a mess! A viable proposal had to meet all of the shall requirements and the shall options, and had to address all of the should requirements ("we can't do this" was one way to address those things). Should options were optional. The base offered price had to cover all of the requirements (shall and should); options had to be priced separately and individually. We didn't win; nobody did. Someone high up eventually put a stop to that convoluted RFP.

With tests, shall and should don't belong. The test criteria says how to interpret the results of the test: Did the test pass or did it fail? The criteria might be plain English, a boolean, math, but not shall. There's no reason to say shall. That the test must eventually pass is implied.

Original score: 2