Software Requirements 2, 2nd Edition

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.

“Requirements” are essential for creating successful software because they let users and developers agree on what features will be delivered in new systems. Karl Wiegers’s Software Requirementsshows you how to define and get more out of software requirements with dozens of “best practices” and tips that make this book a valuable resource for both software project managers and developers.

The book’s commonsense approach provides exemplary project management skills tailored to gathering (and refining, implementing, and eventually tracking) software requirements. While the book often cites recent software engineering studies, the focus always returns to practical management techniques. A case study for a chemical tracking application frames the book, and most chapters begin with anecdotes that demonstrate situations in which users and developers misunderstand each other about a software project’s ultimate goals. (If you’ve ever worked in the field, these stories will probably sound all too familiar.)

This book offers hope, though, for improving your software design process, with dozens of tips on getting better design input from your customers and then using these requirements to generate a variety of design documents. There are numerous templates and sample documents too–a big help for the busy software manager.

Several standout sections cover negotiating difficult steps in the process, particularly how to manage shifting requirements as projects move forward and keep the various users and stakeholders content throughout the software process. Late in the book, the author surveys today’s software management tools and shows how to pick the right ones for your organization.

Anchored by the author’s considerable experience and software engineering expertise, this jargon-free and practical guide to software requirements can definitely give you the edge in managing software projects more efficiently. –Richard Dragan

Topics covered: software requirements specifications (SRS); business and user requirements; risk management; the requirements process; sample documents and templates; requirements development: elicitation, analysis, specification, and verification; rights and responsibilities for software customers; best practices; project management tips; process assessment and improvement; types of users; product champions; use cases and other diagrams; tips for prototyping; managing requirements change; change centered boards (CCBs); evaluating and using requirements tools; requirements traceability matrix; impact analysis.

Table of Contents

Part I. Software Requirements: What, Why, and Who
Chapter 1. The Essential Software Requirement
Chapter 2. Requirements from the Customer’s Perspective
Chapter 3. Good Practices for Requirements Engineering
Chapter 4. The Requirements Analyst

Part II. Software Requirements Development
Chapter 5. Establishing the Product Vision and Project Scope
Chapter 6. Finding the Voice of the Customer
Chapter 7. Hearing the Voice of the Customer
Chapter 8. Understanding User Requirements
Chapter 9. Playing by the Rules
Chapter 10. Documenting the Requirements
Chapter 11. A Picture Is Worth 1024 Words
Chapter 12. Beyond Functionality: Software Quality Attributes
Chapter 13. Risk Reduction Through Prototyping
Chapter 14. Setting Requirement Priorities
Chapter 15. Validating the Requirements
Chapter 16. Special Requirements Development Challenges
Chapter 17. Beyond Requirements Development

Part III. Software Requirements Management
Chapter 18. Requirements Management Principles and Practices
Chapter 19. Change Happens
Chapter 20. Links in the Requirements Chain
Chapter 21. Tools for Requirements Management

Part IV. Implementing Requirements Engineering
Chapter 22. Improving Your Requirements Processes
Chapter 23. Software Requirements and Risk Management