Keywords, for the purpose of gap analysis, are the words like shall, should, recommended, must etc.
[Standards] are generally written in a standard way and are using the standard set of keywords in order to determine importance of the directives. The directives can be split into two main groups:
- Mandatory (based on keywords – shall, must, have to etc.) – where implementation of a given requirement is the must
- Recommendatory (based on keywords – should, may, recommended etc.) – where it is up to the practitioner to decide whether or not to implement the given requirement