Non-Functional Requirements
This document outlines the non-functional requirements (NFRs) for GripDay, a B2B marketing automation platform built with microservices architecture on Kubernetes. These requirements define the quality attributes, constraints, and operational characteristics that the system must satisfy.
🎯 Performance Requirements
Response Time Requirements
| Component | Requirement | Target | Measurement |
|---|---|---|---|
| API Response Time | All REST API endpoints | < 200ms (95th percentile) | Application Performance Monitoring |
| Page Load Time | Frontend application | < 1s (initial load) | Browser performance metrics |
| Database Query Time | PostgreSQL queries | < 100ms (95th percentile) | Database monitoring |
| Email Delivery Time | Email queue processing | < 30s (from trigger to send) | Message queue metrics |
| Campaign Execution | Workflow processing | < 5s (per step) | Campaign engine metrics |
| Form Submission | Form processing | < 500ms | Form analytics |
| Search Operations | Elasticsearch queries | < 300ms | Search performance metrics |
Throughput Requirements
| Component | Requirement | Target | Measurement |
|---|---|---|---|
| API Requests | Concurrent API calls | 1,000 requests/second | Load testing |
| Email Sending | Bulk email processing | 10,000 emails/hour | Email service metrics |
| Contact Import | CSV import processing | 100,000 contacts/hour | Import service metrics |
| Event Processing | Kafka message throughput | 50,000 events/second | Kafka metrics |
| Form Submissions | Concurrent form processing | 500 submissions/second | Form service metrics |
| Campaign Processing | Workflow execution | 1,000 contacts/minute | Campaign metrics |
Scalability Requirements
| Aspect | Requirement | Target | Implementation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horizontal Scaling | Microservices auto-scaling | 2-50 pods per service | Kubernetes HPA |
| Database Scaling | Read replicas | Up to 5 read replicas per service | PostgreSQL clustering |
| Cache Scaling | Redis cluster | Up to 10 nodes | Redis Cluster |
| Storage Scaling | File storage | Unlimited (cloud-based) | MinIO/S3 |
| User Capacity | Concurrent users | 10,000 active users | Load balancing |
| Data Volume | Contact storage | 10 million contacts | Database partitioning |
🔒 Security Requirements
Authentication & Authorization
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication Method | JWT-based stateless authentication | Spring Security 6 with JWT |
| Token Expiration | Access tokens: 15 minutes, Refresh tokens: 7 days | JWT configuration |
| Password Policy | Min 8 chars, uppercase, lowercase, number, special char | BCrypt hashing |
| Multi-Factor Authentication | TOTP-based 2FA support | Optional for enterprise |
| Role-Based Access Control | Granular permissions per microservice | Spring Security RBAC |
| Service-to-Service Auth | JWT propagation between services | API Gateway integration |
| Session Management | Stateless with Redis for session data | Redis-based sessions |
Data Security
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Data Encryption at Rest | AES-256 encryption for sensitive data | Database encryption |
| Data Encryption in Transit | TLS 1.3 for all communications | Istio mTLS |
| PII Protection | Encryption of personally identifiable information | Application-level encryption |
| Database Security | Encrypted connections and access controls | PostgreSQL SSL |
| API Security | Rate limiting and request validation | API Gateway policies |
| Secret Management | Kubernetes secrets with rotation | External Secrets Operator |
Infrastructure Security
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Pod Security Standards | Restricted security profile | Kubernetes PSS |
| Network Policies | Deny-all default with explicit allow rules | Kubernetes Network Policies |
| Service Mesh Security | Automatic mTLS between services | Istio security policies |
| Image Security | Container image scanning and signing | CI/CD security scanning |
| RBAC | Least-privilege access for all services | Kubernetes RBAC |
| Admission Controllers | Policy enforcement at deployment | OPA Gatekeeper |
🔄 Reliability Requirements
Availability Requirements
| Component | Requirement | Target | Implementation |
|---|---|---|---|
| System Uptime | Overall platform availability | 99.9% (43 minutes downtime/month) | Multi-zone deployment |
| API Gateway | Gateway availability | 99.95% | Load balancing with health checks |
| Database Availability | PostgreSQL clusters | 99.9% | High availability with failover |
| Message Queue | Kafka cluster availability | 99.9% | Multi-broker setup |
| Cache Availability | Redis cluster | 99.5% | Redis Cluster with failover |
| Email Service | Email delivery service | 99.5% | Multiple SMTP providers |
Fault Tolerance
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit Breakers | Prevent cascade failures | Resilience4j integration |
| Retry Mechanisms | Automatic retry with exponential backoff | Spring Retry |
| Graceful Degradation | Partial functionality during failures | Feature flags |
| Health Checks | Liveness, readiness, and startup probes | Kubernetes health checks |
| Failover | Automatic failover for critical services | Kubernetes deployment strategies |
| Data Backup | Automated backup with point-in-time recovery | Velero + database backups |
Recovery Requirements
| Aspect | Requirement | Target | Implementation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recovery Time Objective (RTO) | Maximum downtime | 15 minutes | Automated recovery |
| Recovery Point Objective (RPO) | Maximum data loss | 5 minutes | Continuous backup |
| Backup Frequency | Database backups | Every 4 hours | Automated backup jobs |
| Backup Retention | Backup storage duration | 30 days | Backup lifecycle policies |
| Disaster Recovery | Cross-region recovery | 4 hours | Multi-region deployment |
📊 Monitoring & Observability Requirements
Metrics Collection
| Category | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Application Metrics | Business and technical metrics | Prometheus + Spring Boot Actuator |
| Infrastructure Metrics | Kubernetes and system metrics | Prometheus + Node Exporter |
| Custom Metrics | Business-specific KPIs | Custom Prometheus metrics |
| Real-time Dashboards | Live monitoring dashboards | Grafana dashboards |
| Alerting | Intelligent alerting with escalation | Alertmanager + PagerDuty |
Logging Requirements
| Aspect | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Centralized Logging | All logs in central location | ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) |
| Log Retention | Log storage duration | 90 days for application logs |
| Log Levels | Structured logging with levels | Logback with JSON format |
| Log Correlation | Trace requests across services | OpenTelemetry trace IDs |
| Log Security | Sensitive data masking | Log sanitization |
Distributed Tracing
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Request Tracing | End-to-end request tracking | Jaeger with OpenTelemetry |
| Service Dependencies | Service interaction mapping | Service mesh observability |
| Performance Analysis | Latency and bottleneck identification | Distributed tracing analysis |
| Error Tracking | Error propagation across services | Trace error correlation |
🚀 Deployment & Operations Requirements
Kubernetes Requirements
| Aspect | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Container Orchestration | Kubernetes-native deployment | Kubernetes 1.28+ |
| Service Mesh | Traffic management and security | Istio service mesh |
| Package Management | Templated deployments | Helm charts |
| GitOps Deployment | Declarative deployment pipeline | ArgoCD |
| Auto-scaling | Horizontal and vertical scaling | HPA, VPA, Cluster Autoscaler |
| Resource Management | Resource limits and requests | Kubernetes resource quotas |
CI/CD Requirements
| Stage | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Build Pipeline | Automated build and test | GitHub Actions |
| Code Quality | Code coverage > 80% | SonarQube integration |
| Security Scanning | Vulnerability scanning | Snyk/Trivy integration |
| Deployment Strategy | Blue-green deployments | Kubernetes deployment strategies |
| Rollback Capability | Automated rollback on failure | Helm rollback |
| Environment Promotion | Dev → Staging → Production | GitOps workflow |
Backup & Disaster Recovery
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Cluster Backup | Full cluster state backup | Velero |
| Database Backup | Point-in-time recovery | PostgreSQL continuous archiving |
| Configuration Backup | Infrastructure as code | Git repository |
| Cross-region Replication | Multi-region deployment | Cloud provider replication |
| Recovery Testing | Regular disaster recovery drills | Monthly DR tests |
🔧 Maintainability Requirements
Code Quality
| Aspect | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Code Coverage | Minimum test coverage | 80% unit test coverage |
| Code Standards | Consistent coding standards | Checkstyle, ESLint, Prettier |
| Documentation | Comprehensive documentation | JavaDoc, OpenAPI specs |
| Code Reviews | Mandatory peer reviews | GitHub PR reviews |
| Static Analysis | Automated code analysis | SonarQube |
Architecture Quality
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Service Independence | Loosely coupled microservices | Domain-driven design |
| API Versioning | Backward-compatible API evolution | Semantic versioning |
| Database Migrations | Version-controlled schema changes | Liquibase migrations |
| Configuration Management | Externalized configuration | Kubernetes ConfigMaps |
| Dependency Management | Controlled dependency updates | Dependabot |
🌐 Usability Requirements
User Experience
| Aspect | Requirement | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Page Load Time | Initial page load | < 1 second |
| Interface Responsiveness | UI interaction response | < 100ms |
| Mobile Responsiveness | Mobile device support | 100% responsive design |
| Browser Compatibility | Supported browsers | Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge (latest 2 versions) |
| Accessibility | WCAG compliance | WCAG 2.1 AA compliance |
| User Onboarding | Time to first value | < 5 minutes |
Internationalization
| Requirement | Specification | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-language Support | UI localization | React i18n |
| Time Zone Support | Global time zone handling | UTC with local conversion |
| Currency Support | Multi-currency pricing | Configurable currency settings |
| Date/Time Formats | Locale-specific formatting | Internationalization libraries |
📈 Capacity Requirements
Data Storage
| Data Type | Estimated Volume | Growth Rate | Storage Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact Data | 10M contacts | 20% annually | 100GB initial, 20GB/year |
| Email Data | 100M emails | 50% annually | 500GB initial, 250GB/year |
| Campaign Data | 1M campaigns | 30% annually | 50GB initial, 15GB/year |
| Analytics Data | Event streams | 100% annually | 1TB initial, 1TB/year |
| File Storage | Assets and uploads | 40% annually | 200GB initial, 80GB/year |
Resource Requirements
| Environment | CPU | Memory | Storage | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development | 8 cores | 16GB RAM | 100GB SSD | 1Gbps |
| Staging | 16 cores | 32GB RAM | 500GB SSD | 1Gbps |
| Production | 64 cores | 128GB RAM | 2TB SSD | 10Gbps |
| Per Microservice | 0.5-2 cores | 1-4GB RAM | 10-50GB | 100Mbps |
🔍 Compliance Requirements
Data Protection
| Regulation | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| GDPR | EU data protection compliance | Data encryption, right to deletion |
| CCPA | California privacy compliance | Data transparency, opt-out mechanisms |
| SOC 2 | Security and availability controls | Audit logging, access controls |
| ISO 27001 | Information security management | Security policies and procedures |
Industry Standards
| Standard | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| OAuth 2.0 | Secure authorization | Spring Security OAuth2 |
| OpenAPI 3.0 | API documentation standard | Swagger/OpenAPI specs |
| JSON Web Tokens | Secure token format | JWT implementation |
| REST API | RESTful service design | Spring Boot REST controllers |
🎛️ Configuration Requirements
Environment Configuration
| Environment | Configuration | Management |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Local development settings | Docker Compose |
| Staging | Pre-production testing | Kubernetes ConfigMaps |
| Production | Production-ready settings | Kubernetes Secrets |
| Feature Flags | Runtime feature toggles | External feature flag service |
Service Configuration
| Service | Configuration Needs | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Database | Connection pools, timeouts | Spring Boot configuration |
| Cache | TTL, eviction policies | Redis configuration |
| Message Queue | Topics, partitions, retention | Kafka configuration |
| Security | JWT settings, CORS policies | Spring Security configuration |
📋 Testing Requirements
Test Coverage
| Test Type | Coverage Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Tests | 80% code coverage | JUnit 5, Mockito |
| Integration Tests | Critical path coverage | Testcontainers |
| End-to-End Tests | User journey coverage | Cypress/Playwright |
| Performance Tests | Load and stress testing | JMeter/K6 |
| Security Tests | Vulnerability scanning | OWASP ZAP |
Test Automation
| Aspect | Requirement | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Testing | Automated test execution | CI/CD pipeline integration |
| Test Data Management | Isolated test data | Database seeding |
| Test Environment | Dedicated test infrastructure | Kubernetes test namespaces |
| Contract Testing | API contract validation | Pact testing |
🚨 Error Handling Requirements
Error Response Standards
| Error Type | Response Format | HTTP Status |
|---|---|---|
| Validation Errors | Structured error messages | 400 Bad Request |
| Authentication Errors | Security-safe messages | 401 Unauthorized |
| Authorization Errors | Access denied messages | 403 Forbidden |
| Resource Not Found | Resource identification | 404 Not Found |
| Server Errors | Generic error messages | 500 Internal Server Error |
Error Recovery
| Scenario | Recovery Strategy | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Service Unavailable | Circuit breaker activation | Resilience4j |
| Database Connection | Connection pool retry | HikariCP retry |
| Message Queue Failure | Dead letter queue | Kafka DLQ |
| External API Failure | Fallback mechanisms | Hystrix patterns |
📊 Success Metrics
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
| Metric | Target | Measurement Method |
|---|---|---|
| System Uptime | 99.9% | Monitoring dashboards |
| API Response Time | < 200ms (95th percentile) | APM tools |
| Error Rate | < 0.1% | Error tracking |
| Deployment Frequency | Daily | CI/CD metrics |
| Mean Time to Recovery | < 15 minutes | Incident tracking |
| Customer Satisfaction | > 4.5/5 | User feedback |
Operational Metrics
| Metric | Target | Monitoring |
|---|---|---|
| Pod Restart Rate | < 1 per day per service | Kubernetes metrics |
| Resource Utilization | 60-80% CPU/Memory | Resource monitoring |
| Backup Success Rate | 100% | Backup monitoring |
| Security Scan Pass Rate | 100% | Security pipeline |
| Test Pass Rate | > 95% | CI/CD reporting |
🔄 Review and Updates
Document Maintenance
- Review Frequency: Quarterly
- Update Triggers: Architecture changes, new requirements, performance issues
- Approval Process: Technical lead and stakeholder review
- Version Control: Git-based versioning with change tracking
Compliance Monitoring
- Regular Audits: Monthly compliance checks
- Performance Reviews: Weekly performance metric analysis
- Security Assessments: Quarterly security reviews
- Capacity Planning: Bi-annual capacity assessments
This document serves as the definitive guide for non-functional requirements and should be referenced during all architectural decisions, implementation planning, and system operations.