Software Requirements Essentials

20 Best Practices for Developing and Managing Requirements on Any Project Software Requirements Essentials presents 20 core practices for successful requirements planning, elicitation, analysis, specification, validation, and management. Leading requirements experts Karl Wiegers and Candase Hokanson focus on the practices most likely to deliver superior value for both traditional and agile projects, in any application domain. These core practices help teams understand business problems, engage the right participants, articulate better solutions, improve communication, implement the most valuable functionality in the right sequence, and adapt to change and growth. Concise and tightly focused, this book offers just enough pragmatic "how-to" detail for you to apply the core practices with confidence, whether you're a business analyst, requirements engineer, product manager, product owner, or developer. Using it, your entire team can build a shared understanding of key concepts, terminology, techniques, and rationales--and work together more effectively on every project. Learn how to: Clarify problems, define business objectives, and set solution boundaries Identify stakeholders and decision makers Explore user tasks, events, and responses Assess data concepts and relationships Elicit and evaluate quality attributes Analyze requirements and requirement sets, create models and prototypes, and set priorities Specify requirements in a consistent, structured, and well-documented fashion Review, test, and manage change to requirements "I once read the ten best-selling requirements engineering books of the prior ten years. This one book succinctly presents more useful information than those ten books combined." --Mike Cohn, author of User Stories Applied and co-founder, Scrum Alliance "Diamonds come about when a huge amount of carbon atoms are compressed. Karl and Candase have done something very similar: they have compressed their vast requirements knowledge into 20 gems they call 'core practices.' These practices are potent stuff, and I recommend that they become part of everyone's requirements arsenal." --James Robertson, author of Mastering the Requirements Process and Business Analysis Agility "Long story short: if you are going to read only one requirements book, this is it. Software Requirements Essentials distills the wealth of information found in Software Requirements and many other texts down to twenty of the most important requirements activities that apply on nearly all projects. Today's busy BA simply doesn't have the time to read a lengthy instructive guide front-to-back. But they should find the time to read this book." --From the Foreword by Joy Beatty, COO, ArgonDigital "Software Requirements Essentials will be a high-value addition to your business analysis library. Anyone looking to improve their business analysis practices will find great practical advice they'll be able to apply immediately." --Laura Paton, Principal Consultant, BA Academy, Inc. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

In Software Requirements, you'll discover practical, effective techniques for managing the requirements engineering process all the way through the development cycle--including tools to facilitate that all-important communication between users, developers, and management. Use them to: Book jacket.

No matter how much instruction you’ve had on managing software requirements, there’s no substitute for experience. Too often, lessons about requirements engineering processes lack the no-nonsense guidance that supports real-world solutions. Complementing the best practices presented in his book, Software Requirements, Second Edition, requirements engineering authority Karl Wiegers tackles even more of the real issues head-on in this book. With straightforward, professional advice and practical solutions based on actual project experiences, this book answers many of the tough questions raised by industry professionals. From strategies for estimating and working with customers to the nuts and bolts of documenting requirements, this essential companion gives developers, analysts, and managers the cosmic truths that apply to virtually every software development project. Discover how to: • Make the business case for investing in better requirements practices • Generate estimates using three specific techniques • Conduct inquiries to elicit meaningful business and user requirements • Clearly document project scope • Implement use cases, scenarios, and user stories effectively • Improve inspections and peer reviews • Write requirements that avoid ambiguity

Accelerate Your Pursuit of Software Excellence by Learning from Others' Hard-Won Experience "Karl is one of the most thoughtful software people I know. He has reflected deeply on the software development irritants he has encountered over his career, and this book contains 60 of his most valuable responses." -- From the Foreword by Steve McConnell, Construx Software and author of Code Complete "Wouldn't it be great to gain a lifetime's experience without having to pay for the inevitable errors of your own experience? Karl Wiegers is well versed in the best techniques of business analysis, software engineering, and project management. You'll gain concise but important insights into how to recover from setbacks as well as how to avoid them in the first place." --Meilir Page-Jones, Senior Business Analyst, Wayland Systems Inc. Experience is a powerful teacher, but it's also slow and painful. You can't afford to make every mistake yourself! Software Development Pearls helps you improve faster and bypass much of the pain by learning from others who already climbed the learning curves. Drawing on 25+ years helping software teams succeed, Karl Wiegers has crystallized 60 concise, practical lessons for all your projects, regardless of your role, industry, technology, or methodology. Wiegers's insights and specific recommendations cover six crucial elements of success: requirements, design, project management, culture and teamwork, quality, and process improvement. For each, Wiegers offers First Steps for reflecting on your own experiences before you start; detailed Lessons with core insights, real case studies, and actionable solutions; and Next Steps for planning adoption in your project, team, or organization. This is knowledge you weren't taught in college or boot camp. It can boost your performance as a developer, business analyst, quality professional, or manager. Clarify requirements to gain a shared vision and understanding of your real problem Create robust designs that implement the right functionality and quality attributes and can evolve Anticipate and avoid ubiquitous project management pitfalls Grow a culture in which behaviors actually align with what people claim to value Plan realistically for quality and build it in from the outset Use process improvement to achieve desired business results, not as an end in itself Choose your next steps to get full value from all these lessons Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Apply best practices for capturing, analyzing, and implementing software requirements through visual models—and deliver better results for your business. The authors—experts in eliciting and visualizing requirements—walk you through a simple but comprehensive language of visual models that has been used on hundreds of real-world, large-scale projects. Build your fluency with core concepts—and gain essential, scenario-based context and implementation advice—as you progress through each chapter. Transcend the limitations of text-based requirements data using visual models that more rigorously identify, capture, and validate requirements Get real-world guidance on best ways to use visual models—how and when, and ways to combine them for best project outcomes Practice the book’s concepts as you work through chapters Change your focus from writing a good requirement to ensuring a complete system

Computer Architecture/Software Engineering

"Essential System Requirements targets the discovery and definition of critical system requirements in the analysis phase of system development - where good design is vital to the success of a project. This book explores a design methodology that involves users early on to describe essential business events. These events then partition the system response into logical, more easily managed segments. The result is a conceptual model that reflects real business needs and accelerates the entire delivery process."--BOOK JACKET.

A classic treatise that defined the field of applied demand analysis, Consumer Demand in the United States: Prices, Income, and Consumption Behavior is now fully updated and expanded for a new generation. Consumption expenditures by households in the United States account for about 70% of Americaâ__s GDP. The primary focus in this book is on how households adjust these expenditures in response to changes in price and income. Econometric estimates of price and income elasticities are obtained for an exhaustive array of goods and services using data from surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, providing a better understanding of consumer demand. Practical models for forecasting future price and income elasticities are also demonstrated. Fully revised with over a dozen new chapters and appendices, the book revisits the original Taylor-Houthakker models while examining new material as well, such as the use of quantile regression and the stationarity of consumer preference. It also explores the emerging connection between neuroscience and consumer behavior, integrating the economic literature on demand theory with psychology literature. The most comprehensive treatment of the topic to date, this volume will be an essential resource for any researcher, student or professional economist working on consumer behavior or demand theory, as well as investors and policymakers concerned with the impact of economic fluctuations.