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(More customer reviews)Karl Wieger's book is destined to be classic in software requirements. It delivers a large set (over 40) no-nonsense best practices in highly readable, non-nonsense manner. I believe every project manager, IT (Information Technology) and business analyst, and IT account manager should read this book. Further, developers would do well to read it to gain critical insight into the 'big picture' of requirements engineering.
The book is broken down into three sections: the case for requirements engineering best practices ("What and Why"), the requirements discovery, verification and validation process ("Software Requirements Engineering"), and the essentials of requirements management ("Software Requirements Management"). Throughout, the dual necessities of doing requirements right (verification) and doing the right requirements (validation) is addressed. Wiegers has thoroughly delved into the literature in the software requirements field. The text is liberally spiced with tidbits of data to support the business case for implementing these best practices. I found myself making notes in the inside cover and folding back pages to reference again as I read through the book.
Early in the book, Wiegers presents a set of software engineering best practices which are classified into priority (high, medium, low) and difficulty (high, medium, low). Although you may disagree with the specific rankings for your shop, this table is an excellent example of modeling appropriate requirements engineering practices - prioritizing requirements! Other goodies abound. For example, a partial case study flows throughout the book which gives the reader enough of an idea of what a use case, dialog map, text requirement, etc. looks like to get the concept being resented. Each chapter ends with a concise list of suggested next steps, providing the reader with concrete actions to take to implement the practices covered in that chapter. In addition, there are numerous sample templates (e.g. Risk Item Tracking, Software Requirements Specification), several excellent checklists (e.g. Inspection Checklist for Software Requirements Spec, Software Elements Affected by a Proposed Change,), visual models (e.g. Requirements Traceability Links, Change Control Process) and a wonderful "bill of rights" for the software customer which boldly and directly asserts both rights and responsibilities of the customer.
A set of example models is provided in the chapter called "A Picture is Worth 1024 Words". You will need to read other books or take training on the mechanics, notations and semantics of these models for visualized functional requirements. But the author covers the key models and their purpose succinctly.
This book is easy to read, cuts to the chase, and provides a bounty of information that will wet our appetite to take action. This book is not a requirements engineering method or methodology, which would prescribe step-by-step protocols of task, roles, and techniques. Rather, like the classic cookbook The Joy of Cooking, you will find well-proven, sensible, and reusable practices. In Software Requirements, you will find the right ingredients and essential practices needed to 'cook' tasty requirements.
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Without formal, verifiable software requirements-and an effective system for managing them-the programs that developers think they've agreed to build often will not be the same products their customers are expecting. In SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS, Second Edition, requirements engineering authority Karl Wiegers amplifies the best practices presented in his original award-winning text?now a mainstay for anyone participating in the software development process.
In this book, you'll discover effective techniques for managing the requirements engineering process all the way through the development cycle-including dozens of techniques to facilitate that all-important communication between users, developers, and management. This updated edition features new case examples, anecdotes culled from the author's extensive consulting career, and specific Next Steps for putting the book's process-improvement principles into practice. You'll also find several new chapters, sample documents, and an incisive troubleshooting guide.
Discover how to:
Set achievable expectations for functionality and quality
NEW: Incorporate business rules into application development
Employ use cases to discover user requirements
Arrest creeping requirements and manage change requests
NEW: Deal with requirements on maintenance, outsourced, and package solution projects
Curb the impulse to "gold-plate" your programs
NEW: Grow effective requirements analysts
Cut revisions-and costs-dramatically
Produce better software!
No matter what kind of software you build, or what your role in the development process, SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS, Second Edition, delivers expert guidance and field-tested techniques for engineering software success.
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