• Author:
  • Alexander, Ian
  • Beus-Dukic, Ljerka
• Subject:
  Computer Programming / Software Development
• Published by:
  John Wiley & Sons (UK)
• Published:
  27/02/2009
• Price:
  $94.99
• <  Buy this book  >

Essential reading before practitioners tackle a substantial requirements project

• Covering everything practitioners need to know to create good requirements, this book uses worked examples in order to show readers how to build an understanding of various problems that may arise
• Includes difficult scenarios in each chapter, with carefully checked hints
• Offering an up-to-date and fresh approach, the material uses a set of simple, robust, and effective cognitive tools for building requirements to explain the right questions to ask while working on a project
• Author duo shares detailed answers to questions such as what needs to be achieved, what is involved, what does the customer want, what could go wrong, and how can a common goal be accomplished

Ian Alexander consults and trains on requirements. He is the coauthor of several books, including Writing Better Requirements (ISBN tk) and Scenarios, Stories, Use Cases (ISBN tk), and has published many technical papers and popular articles, including regular contributions to the IEEE Software.

Ljerka Beus-Dukic is a lecturer in software engineering and has taught requirements engineering for a number of years. She is the author of numerous technical papers and publications.

Acknowledgements.

Foreword.

PART I: DISCOVERING REQUIREMENT ELEMENTS.

1. Introduction.

1.1 Summary.

1.2 Why You Should Read This Book.

1.3 Simple but Not Easy.

1.4 Discovered, not Found.

1.5 A Softer Process, at First.

1.6 More than a List of ’The System Shalls’.

1.7 A Minimum of Process: the Discovery Cycle.

1.8 Structure of this Book.

1.9 Further Reading.

2. Stakeholders.

2.1 Summary.

2.2 Discovering Stakeholders.

2.3 Identifying Stakeholders.

2.4 Managing Your Stakeholders.

2.5 Validating Your List of Stakeholders.

2.6 The Bare Minimum of Stakeholder Analysis.

2.7 Next Steps: Requirements from Stakeholders.

2.8 Exercises.

2.9 Further Reading.

3. Goals.

3.1 Summary.

3.2 Discovering Goals.

3.3 Documenting Goals.

3.4 Validating Goals.

3.5 The Bare Minimum of Goals.

3.6 Next Steps.

3.7 Exercises.

3.8 Further Reading.

4. Context, Interfaces, Scope.

4.1 Summary.

4.2 Introduction.

4.3 A ‘Soft Systems’ Approach for Ill-Defined Boundaries.

4.4 Switching to a ‘Hard Systems’ Approach for Known Events.

4.5 The Bare Minimum of Context.

4.6 Next Steps.

4.7 Exercises.

4.8 Further Reading.

5. Scenarios.

5.1 Summary.

5.2 Discovering Scenarios.

5.3 Documenting Scenarios.

5.4 Validating Scenarios.

5.5 The Bare Minimum of Scenarios.

5.6 Next Steps.

5.7 Exercises.

5.8 Further Reading.

6. Qualities & Constraints.

6.1 Summary.

6.2 What are Qualities and Constraints?

6.3 Discovering Qualities and Constraints.

6.4 Documenting Qualities and Constraints.

6.5 Validating Qualities and Constraints.

6.6 The Bare Minimum of Qualities and Constraints.

6.7 Next Steps.

6.8 Exercises.

6.9 Further Reading.

7. Rationale and Assumptions.

7.1 Summary.

7.2 The Value of Rationale.

7.3 Discovering Rationale and Assumptions.

7.4 Documenting Rationale.

7.5 Validating Rationale and Assumptions.

7.6 The Bare Minimum of Rationale and Assumptions.

7.7 Next Steps.

7.8 Exercises.

7.9 Further Reading.

8. Definitions.

8.1 Summary.

8.2 Discovering Definitions.

8.3 The Bare Minimum of Definitions.

8.4 Next Steps.

8.5 Exercises.

8.6 Further Reading.

9. Measurements.

9.1 Summary.

9.2 Discovering and Documenting Acceptance Criteria.

9.3 Validating Acceptance Criteria.

9.4 Measuring Quality of Service (Qos).

9.5 Validating Qos Measures.

9.6 The Bare Minimum of Measurement.

9.7 Next Steps.

9.8 Exercises.

9.9 Further Reading.

10. Priorities.

10.1 Summary.

10.2 Two Kinds of Priority.

10.3 Input Priority.

10.4 Output Priority.

10.5 The Bare Minimum of Priorities.

10.6 Next Steps.

10.7 Exercises.

10.8 Further Reading.

PART II: DISCOVERY CONTEXTS.

11. Requirements from Individuals.

11.1 Summary.

11.2 Introduction.

11.3 Interviews.

11.4 Observation and ‘Apprenticeship’.

11.5 The Bare Minimum from Individuals.

11.6 Exercises.

11.7 Further Reading.

12. Requirements from Groups.

12.1 Summary.

12.2 The Goal of Group Work.

12.3 Workshops.

12.4 Group Media.

12.5 The Bare Minimum from Groups.

12.6 Next Steps.

12.7 Exercises.

12.8 Further Reading.

13. Requirements from Things.

13.1 Summary.

13.2 Requirements Prototyping.

13.3 Reverse Engineering.

13.4 Requirements Reuse.

13.5 Validating Requirements from Things.

13.6 The Bare Minimum from Things.

13.7 Exercises.

13.8 Further Reading.

14. Trade-Offs.

14.1 Summary.

14.2 Optioneering: The Engineering of Trade-Offs.

14.3 Validating your Trade-offs.

14.4 The Bare Minimum of Trade-offs.

14.5 Next Steps.

14.6 Exercises.

14.7 Further Reading.

15. Putting it all Together.

15.1 Summary.

15.2 After Discovery.

15.3 The Right Process for your Project.

15.4 Organising the Requirements Specification.

15.5 The Bare Minimum of Putting it all Together.

15.6 Further Reading.

Appendix A.

Appendix B.

Appendix C.

Appendix D.

Bibliography.

Glossary.

Abstracts.