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Goals, Requirements, and Constraints

Goals and Non-Goals

Primary project goals

  • Implement cost-optimal audio transcription for personal use

Out of scope

  • Not a publicly accessible open system
  • Not a paid or monetizable platform

Business requirements

  • BR-001. The service is accessible over the internet.
  • BR-002. Access is limited to authorized users.
  • BR-003. The system supports transcription of long audio.
  • BR-004. The system supports speaker diarization.
  • BR-005. The user can download the completed transcript.

Functional requirements

  • FR-001. The user receives a presigned upload URL.
  • FR-002. The system creates a transcription job whose current status the user can check without refreshing the page.
  • FR-003. The system updates job status as processing progresses.
  • FR-004. The UI displays a list of jobs and their current status.
  • FR-005. The user receives a presigned URL for the completed transcript.
  • FR-006. The webhook handler accepts a callback from the transcription provider.

Constraints

  • CON-001. Files up to 300 MB.
  • CON-002. Recording duration up to 6 hours.
  • CON-003. Up to 5 files transcribed concurrently.
  • CON-004. 1–3 users.
  • CON-005. An on-premises model is not considered.
  • CON-006. Ongoing infrastructure costs must be minimal.

Non-functional requirements

  • NFR-001. Access control.
  • NFR-002. Cost efficiency.
  • NFR-003. Portability.
  • NFR-004. Operability.
  • NFR-005. Resilience of async workflow.

Requirements (detailed)

  • BR-001. Internet accessibility The system must be accessible from any device connected to the internet.
  • BR-002. Restricted access The system must provide user authorization and authentication. New user registration is not planned, but user management must be supported.
  • BR-003. Speaker diarization The system must support splitting the transcript by speakers.
  • BR-004. File formats The system must support the most common voice recorder formats — MP3, AAC.

Rules and constraints (detailed)

  • CON-001. Deployment region: for users in Europe, the Caucasus, and Turkey. An AWS region with acceptable availability. Low latency is not a critical requirement because the primary scenario is asynchronous.

  • CON-002. Recording file size — up to 300 MB.

  • CON-003. Single recording duration — up to 6 hours. The system must operate reliably on long recordings.

  • CON-004. Final transcription cost The cost per minute at 40 hours per month must not exceed $0.3/minute including infrastructure costs (reference: https://speech2text.ru/my/rate).

  • CON-005. Mandatory access restriction 1–2 accounts for personal use is sufficient.

  • CON-006. Running an open-source transcription model is not planned Due to lack of hardware at the required level, and the economic impracticality of renting such equipment.

  • CON-007. Solution portability The solution must be easy to deploy and, if needed, tear down when the need for it is temporarily gone.

  • CON-008. Minimal maintenance costs The solution must require minimal resources for maintenance (security updates, etc.).