Product Description

"If the purpose is to create one of the best books on requirements yet written, the authors have succeeded."

—Capers Jones

It is widely recognized that incorrect requirements account for up to 60 percent of errors in software products, and yet the majority of software development organizations do not have a formal requirements process. Many organizations appear willing to spend huge amounts on fixing and altering poorly specified software, but seem unwilling to invest a much smaller amount to get the requirements right in the first place.

Mastering the Requirements Process, Second Edition, sets out an industry-proven process for gathering and verifying requirements with an eye toward today's agile development environments. In this total update of the bestselling guide, the authors show how to discover precisely what the customer wants and needs while doing the minimum requirements work according to the project's level of agility.

Features include

• The Volere requirements process—completely specified, and revised for compatibility with agile environments

• A specification template that can be used as the basis for your own requirements specifications

• New agility ratings that help you funnel your efforts into only the requirements work needed for your particular development environment and project

• How to make requirements testable using fit criteria

• Iterative requirements gathering leading to faster delivery to the client

• Checklists to help identify stakeholders, users, nonfunctional requirements, and more

• Details on gathering and implementing requirements for iterative releases

• An expanded project sociology section for help with identifying and communicating with stakeholders

• Strategies for exploiting use cases to determine the best product to build

• Methods for reusing requirements and requirements patterns

• Examples showing how the techniques and templates are applied in real-world situations

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175242 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 592 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Written for any software analyst or designer, Mastering the Requirements Process provides a powerful and useful guide to defining software requirements that are more complete and lead to overall better software. Written in an engaging style and filled with innovative advice, this book can help anyone who designs software for a living.

The heart of this book is the authors' Volere Requirements Process Model, a step-by-step guide to gathering your requisites. Throughout this book, the authors use this process to explicate a single case study--a system for a municipality that will optimise the de-icing of roadways during snowy weather. Along the way, this book provides a solid guide to identifying and refining requirements, both functional and non-functional (such as performance and ease-of-use).

There are many excellent ideas in the book, including the notion of "fitness" for your requirements, which can be later used to track whether software is successful. The book also wisely separates technology from requirements so that analysts can concentrate on understanding and modelling business problems instead of moving right away to the nuts-and-bolts of implementation. Even if you don't adopt the Volere model, any software designer can benefit from the concepts of trawling (a metaphor for the requirements gathering process), quality gateways (in which tentative requirements are evaluated for inclusion in a project) and the wise use of patterns to help simplify the process.

Anchored by numerous examples (including many samples of successful requirements), the book provides an appealing mix of new ideas along with a remarkably clear presentation. In short, Mastering the Requirements Process provides useful advice that can make the project specification building phase of the software process easier and more robust. It provides the first steps for improving overall software quality for your organisation. --Richard Dragan, amazon.com

Topics covered: Volere Requirements Process Model, project blast-off, determining requirements, user and stakeholders, project constraints, requirements constraints, use cases, business events, adjacent systems, innovation, trawling for requirements: apprenticing, interviews and videotape, functional and non-functional requirements, fit criteria, quality gateways, traceability, prototyping and scenarios, low and high-fidelity prototypes, patterns and requirements reuse, improving the requirements gathering process.

From the Back Cover

"If the purpose is to create one of the best books on requirements yet written, the authors have succeeded."

—Capers Jones

It is widely recognized that incorrect requirements account for up to 60 percent of errors in software products, and yet the majority of software development organizations do not have a formal requirements process. Many organizations appear willing to spend huge amounts on fixing and altering poorly specified software, but seem unwilling to invest a much smaller amount to get the requirements right in the first place.

Mastering the Requirements Process, Second Edition, sets out an industry-proven process for gathering and verifying requirements with an eye toward today's agile development environments. In this total update of the bestselling guide, the authors show how to discover precisely what the customer wants and needs while doing the minimum requirements work according to the project's level of agility.

Features include

• The Volere requirements process—completely specified, and revised for compatibility with agile environments

• A specification template that can be used as the basis for your own requirements specifications

• New agility ratings that help you funnel your efforts into only the requirements work needed for your particular development environment and project

• How to make requirements testable using fit criteria

• Iterative requirements gathering leading to faster delivery to the client

• Checklists to help identify stakeholders, users, nonfunctional requirements, and more

• Details on gathering and implementing requirements for iterative releases

• An expanded project sociology section for help with identifying and communicating with stakeholders

• Strategies for exploiting use cases to determine the best product to build

• Methods for reusing requirements and requirements patterns

• Examples showing how the techniques and templates are applied in real-world situations

About the Author

Suzanne Robertson and James Robertson have, over many years, helped hundreds of companies improve their requirements techniques and move into the fast lane of system development. Their courses and seminars on requirements, analysis, and design are widely praised for their innovative approach. The Robertsons are principals of the Atlantic Systems Guild, a well-known consultancy specializing in the human dimensions of complex system building. They are also the coauthors of Requirements-Led Project Management (Addison-Wesley, 2005).

James Robertson and Suzanne Robertson have, over many years, helped hundreds of companies improve their requirements techniques and move into the fast lane of system development. Their courses and seminars on requirements, analysis, and design are widely praised for their innovative approach. The Robertsons are principals of the Atlantic Systems Guild, a well-known consultancy specializing in the human dimensions of complex system building. They are also the coauthors of Requirements-Led Project Management (Addison-Wesley, 2005).

Customer Reviews

This gives the vital "how"
This book emphasises the rigour, evolutionary nature and structure of requirements. For those in a rush, the book has a very brief and useful summary at the end of each chapter. The Requirements Specification Template is at the heart/brain of this book. The template includes the Requirements Shell, which is filled-in for each individual requirement. The book explains the processes involved in producing the template. Requirements are structured in a very holistic manner and they have the concept of "potential requirements"; requirements are not real until they have passed through the Quality Gateway. On the downside, the book seems rather lengthy with much repetition but is worth its weight in gold for the Appendices: A "A Volere Requirements Process Model", B "Volere Requirements Specification Template". Also, the practical experience and humour of the authors shine through. Note: "Volere" is the Italian word for "to wish" or "to want".

A gem in an under-published subject
I'd never read a book on 'business analysis' or 'requirements engineering' before. I've never studied computer science either. But I have been a business analyst for the last few years -- helping clients define their requirements, improve processes and build solutions.

"Mastering the Requirements Process" is an enlightening read. The Volere requirements engineering process is well structured, and documented in some detail. I also enjoyed the use of a UK case study, even if the language used was American English. The authors introduce an array of terminology, mostly accepted terms coined by other authors, but Robertson & Robertson's definition of terminology like 'use cases' was slightly fuzzy for someone new to requirements engineering. However, Robertson & Robertson do provide plenty of recommended reading (and even more reasons to use Amazon.co.uk). They also provide a useful website with templates and updates.

I would have given it five stars, but I think coverage of business events, use cases and inputs/outputs could have been better, and the writing could have been more concise in places.

IThis is very very good stuff
This is just a gem. If you've never read anything else about requirements, start here, and when you have widened your reading,you'll still find yourself stuffing it into your bag to re-read a half-remembered chapter on the train, months or years later. Of all the requirements books this is the one that I come back to for basic common sense. It's really about software challenges, but you can extrapolate the techniques to other fields; I just wish they'd write some more stuff like this for goofball systems engineers trying to mix up software, hardware, processes and people in complex supply chains. Then I'd be in systems heaven! Their other book is great too. (They should pay me for this copy)