Just Enough Requirements Management: Where Software Development Meets Marketing

by Alan Davis

Overview

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 2005).

If you develop software without understanding the requirements, you're wasting your time.

On the other hand, if a project spends too much time trying to understand the requirements, it will end up late and/or over-budget. And products that are created by such projects can be just as unsuccessful as those that fail to meet the basic requirements.

Instead, every company must make a reasonable trade-off between what's required and what time and resources are available.

Finding the right balance for your project may depend on many factors, including the corporate culture, the time-to-market pressure, and the criticality of the application. That is why requirements management—gathering requirements, identifying the "right" ones to satisfy, and documenting them—is essential.

Just Enough Requirements Management shows you how to discover, prune, and document requirements when you are subjected to tight schedule constraints. You'll apply just enough process to minimize risks while still achieving desired outcomes. You'll determine how many requirements are just enough to satisfy your customers while still meeting your goals for schedule, budget, and resources.

If your project has insufficient resources to satisfy all the requirements of your customers, you must read Just Enough Requirements Management.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780133491319
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	07/18/2013
Series:	Dorset House eBooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

ALAN M. DAVIS is Professor of Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and president of Offtoa, Inc. He was a member of the board of directors of Requisite, Inc., acquired by Rational Software Corporation in February, 1997, and subsequently acquired by IBM in 2003. He has consulted for many corporations during the past 27 years, including Boeing, Cigna Insurance, Federal Express, General Electric, IBM, Mitsubishi Electric, and many more. Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Software from 1994 to 1998, he has published numerous books and more than 100 articles in journals, conference proceedings, and trade press, and has lectured 2,000-plus times in 28 countries. 

Table of Contents

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Preface

Chapter One: Introduction 3

Requirements 3

Requirements Management 6

Just Enough 8

The Context of Requirements 10

The Relationship Between Schedule and Requirements 18

The Components of Requirements Management 23

The Importance of Requirements Management 36

Chapter Two: Requirements Elicitation 40

Definitions and Terminology 40

Why Do Elicitation? 45

Elicitation Techniques 45

The Result of Elicitation 59

The Secrets of Just Enough Elicitation 61

Chapter Three: Requirements Triage 63

Definitions and Terminology 63

Why Do Triage? 67

Basic Triage Techniques 68

Advanced Triage Techniques 97

The Result of Triage 115

The Secrets of Just Enough Triage 116

Chapter Four: Requirements Specification 119

Definitions and Terminology 119

Classic Requirements Documentation Styles 122

The Content of a Requirements Document 125

The Role of a Requirements Document 127

Qualities of a Requirements Document 128

Specification Techniques 136

The Result of Specification 156

The Secrets of Just Enough Specification 161

Chapter Five: Requirements Change 163

Where Do Changes Come From? 164

How to Keep Track of Requested Changes 165

Choices for Handling the Changes 165

The CCB Meeting 170

The Secrets of Just Enough Change 171

 

Chapter Six: Summary 172

Requirements Elicitation 173

Requirements Triage 174

Requirements Specification 175

Requirements Change Management 176

Appendix A: Quick Recipes 177

Brainstorm 178

Decide What Is or Isn't a Requirement 183

Decide What to Build 185

Produce a Requirements Document 188

Assess the Quality of a Requirements Document 190

Baseline the Requirements 192

Ensure That Everybody Knows the Requirements 192

Handle New Requirements After Baselining 194

Handle Multiple Customers 196

Appendix B: A Set of Documented Requirements 200

References and Additional Readings 209

Index 227

About the Author 239