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Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design

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Title: Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design
by Donald C. Gause, Gerald M. Weinberg
ISBN: 0-932633-13-7
Publisher: Dorset House
Pub. Date: September, 1989
Format: Hardcover
Volumes: 1
List Price(USD): $44.95
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Average Customer Rating: 4.81 (21 reviews)

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5
Summary: A classic now and destined to be a classic in the future
Comment: This book is a refreshing approach to eliciting and analyzing requirements and has completely changed my thinking. What I like about it (and how it influenced me the most) is the human-approach that accounts for how we illogical creatures perceive, think and react. The authors use humor to lure us into a logical way of seeing the world and applying critical thought and a good dose of reasoning to the process. For the first time I was able to clearly see how difficult it is to effectively communicate, which is key to eliciting requirements, and how perceptions need to be managed. The anecdotes scattered throughout this book made it lively reading (rare for a "technical" book), and the skillful writing and well thought out structure of the book leads you into regions of thought and thinking where one rarely ventures on their own.

With 25 years of IT experience, and countless frustrating cycles of eliciting what I thought were firm requirements only to discover that there were still disconnects, I can only say I wish I had read this book years ago. However, better late than never. I recommend that anyone involved with eliciting or analyzing requirements read this book. It will almost certainly change your approach, and will definitely teach you a thing or two about human nature. I agree with a previous reviewer in that this book will be as valid a decade from now as it is today and the decade ago that it was first written.

Rating: 5
Summary: A "must read" book for anyone who designs systems
Comment: In a world where there is strong emphasis on project management skills and design skills, this is a welcome book that emphasizes that requirements must come first. The process of defining requirements is vital to success and, with good requirements, quality is assured. I recommend this book to anyone who works on solving problems or in building systems of any kind. Gause and Weinberg are excellent in presenting complex concepts in an entertaining and informative way.

There is a human tendency to want to rush into solutions as soon as an opportunity surfaces. And... the result is usually not what was needed. Then, there is a rush to "add quality" to the result by fixing the flaws. This is costly and often fatal to the project. This book takes the reader down a different road. A road of first defining the objective that is to be attained and being sure that all parties understand and agree to the requirements. If you only have a few books in your business library, this should be one of them. I shared my copy with so many colleagues that I finally had to buy another copy.

Rating: 5
Summary: Should be 6 stars!
Comment: Like Weingerg's other books (and I have read them all -- most more than once), "Exploring Requirements" is about human nature, the way we react as individual beings to problems we encounter. Anyone looking for a canned methodology or "step-by-step" process to enable a system definition or design may be disappointed. But anyone who reads this will never react to any type of communication the same way again.

This is definitely not a technical book, nor even an IT book. It should be required reading for anyone whose job involves communication -- and that's just about everyone in business today. I have recommended it to all my managers and direct reports over the years since it was first published. I have also recommended it to trainers in public speaking and executive presentation skills. The writers' style is at once entertaining and instructive. Unless you are looking for a "cookbook," you won't be disappointed.

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