Herb is the business analyst for the HYY Organization. As Herb is completing the organize requirements process he recognizes that requirements typically need to answer one question for identification.

In the organize requirements process, requirements are fundamentally statements about WHAT a solution must accomplish, deliver, or satisfy. This distinguishes a requirement from design (which answers 'How') or business rationale (which answers 'Why'), ensuring that requirements remain solution-agnostic and focused on the needed capability or condition.

'When' describes timing or scheduling constraints, which may be part of a requirement attribute but is not the single defining interrogative that all requirements must answer.

'Why' addresses the business rationale or justification behind a need and belongs to the business case or objective, not the requirement statement itself.

'How' describes the design or implementation approach, which is intentionally excluded from requirements to avoid prescribing a solution before one is chosen.