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Q&A Should one use the legal "shall" in requirements documents and specification documents?

Although the ISO may favor keeping "shall," I agree with PlainLanguage for this one: https://plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/conversational/shall-and-must/ Use “must” not “shall” to impose require...

posted 5y ago by April Salutes Monica C.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-02-10T14:22:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43600
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:32:38Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43600
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T02:32:38Z (almost 5 years ago)
Although the ISO may favor keeping "shall," I agree with PlainLanguage for this one:[https://plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/conversational/shall-and-must/](https://plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/conversational/shall-and-must/)

> Use “must” not “shall” to impose requirements. “Shall” is ambiguous, and rarely occurs in everyday conversation. The legal community is moving to a strong preference for “must” as the clearest way to express a requirement or obligation.

I favor _must_ for requirements, _should_ for a recommendation, _could_ for an option, and _will_ for statements of fact.

We _must_ set our clocks forward for Daylight Savings. You _should_ plan your sleep schedule to account for this. You _could_ move to a state that stays with one time-scheme all year. Regardless, the earth _will_ orbit the sun just as it always has.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-03-15T19:42:07Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 0