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Title: Software Requirements, Second Edition by Karl E. Wiegers ISBN: 0-7356-1879-8 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 26 February, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.68 (28 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: This book should become a classic in requirements writing
Comment: This is a great book. It provides clear and concise approaches to solving classic requirements problems. It is not just about software, it can be applied to any system or project. It is not written in software terms, it avoids the software worlds attempt to create new terms for everything.
This is not a book by an academic but by someone who has worked in industry and solved problems, just like those that you face.
The book includes templates, checklists and guidelines that are easy to use. I also liked the clean style of the book and it is very easy to read. You can apply all or part of the suggested process to your own projects.
A more detailed review will appear in the Winter Issue of Insight, the magazine of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
Rating: 4
Summary: Practical, could benefit from more samples
Comment: This book is a practical guide to requirements development. The author draws from his own experience but also distills best practices from industry experts. We used this book to put a formal requirements structure in place which we hope will help to clarify what needs to be built before code development begins. The author points out that requirements errors are approximately 60 to 100 times more expensive to correct in code...I have delivered great software that the customer hated more times than I'd like to admit. If you don't bridge the expectations gap early and deliver what the customer wants it won't matter how beautiful your design and engineering is. One thing I appreciated about the author's approach was that it was not dogmatic and rigid, basically use what works in this model, discard the rest. One small criticism: it would have been nice to see a complete, end to end example of the requirements documents from vision and scope to use cases, to finally the functional spec, complete with suggested formatting conventions. If space was a consideration, then maybe a website could have been used to supplement the text.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best Practices in Requirements Engineering. Must-Have.
Comment: How do you know if you have good software requirements? Some use the simple technique of checking if the requirements definition is complete, clear, and consistent. Every book on requirements engineering has some variation of this theme and in this book, you are advised to check if the requirements statement is complete, correct, feasible, necessary, prioritized, unambiguous, and verifiable.
If you haven't used techniques like this one before, it is definitely a good idea to pick up a solid book like this one on the best practices in requirements engineering. There are several good books in the market on the topic of software requirements and this is one of the best ones out there.
I found three other books that complement this one - Requirements Engineering by Kotonya and Sommerville (used more as a textbook), Managing Software Requirements by Leffingwell and Widrig (part of the Object Technology Series), and Effective Requirements Practices by Ralph R. Young (comes with a CD-ROM).
If you are a project manager, business analyst or anyone that has a lot to lose because of bad requirements, you will benefit tremendously from this current book being reviewed. The book is divided into three parts - What and Why, Development, and Management of Software Requirements. The part names are self explanatory. This book is very readable and is full of best practices that stand true to their name!
The unique things about this book - in chapter 2, the author outlines the Requirements Bill of Rights for Software Customers and the Requirements Bill of Responsibilities for Software Customers. When I first read this, I felt like every customer has to read this before attempting a software project. Chapter 10 has an excellent description of different diagrams useful in requirements documentation - DFD (data flow diagram), ERD (entity-relationship diagram), STD (state transition diagram), dialog map, and class diagrams. I think all books on software requirements should ideally have some variation of these topics.
Important topics like traceability are given an excellent treatment in this book but the only thing lacking is how to manage requirements in software processes involving iterations (the mainstay of the Rational Unified Process and other newer software development methodologies). There are only 13 pages devoted to this topic and even then it is indirect - Chapter 12: Risk Reduction Through Prototyping.
Otherwise, I have no complaints about this book and I believe that it is a basic to intermediate in level (definitely not an advanced book). Overall, I believe it indeed captures the best practices in the field of requirements engineering. It is also a good price, so enjoy!
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Title: Writing Effective Use Cases by Alistair Cockburn ISBN: 0201702258 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 15 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: Mastering the Requirements Process by Suzanne Robertson, James Robertson ISBN: 0201360462 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 12 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $49.99 |
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Title: Rapid Development by Steve McConnell ISBN: 1556159005 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 02 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Software Project Survival Guide by Steve C McConnell ISBN: 1572316217 Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 14 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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Title: Managing Software Requirements: A Unified Approach (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series) by Dean Leffingwell, Don Widrig ISBN: 0201615932 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 28 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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