The Software Requirements Memory Jogger: A Desktop Guide to Help Software and Business Teams Develop and Manage Requirements - Softcover

Ellen Gottesdiener

Softcover

ISBN 10: 157681114X ISBN 13: 9781576811146

Publisher: Goal/QPC, 2009

Synopsis

This concisely written book explains why it is important to define high-quality requirements and gives you tools and techniques for developing and managing requirements. Originally published as a 3.5 X 5.5-inch wire-bound booklet, strong demand brought forth the publication of this larger 5 x 7 inch; version. Covered in this best selling publication are the essentials of requirements development & management: how to elicit, prioritize and document requirements how to create useful models for analyzing requirements ways to verify and validate requirements techniques for adapting requirements practices how to manage requirements throughout the project. The book helps stakeholders including analysts, project managers, and team facilitators, at all organizational levels learn and apply the tools, methods and processes needed to attain high-quality software requirements. It's a valuable tool as a stand-alone resource, training reference book and handy perform

About this title

About the Author

Ellen Gottesdiener, Principal Consultant and Founder of EBG Consulting, Inc., is a requirements expert who works with both traditional and agile teams to help them deliver the right product at the right time.

Her first book, Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs (Addison-Wesley, 2002) describes how to use multiple models to elicit requirements in collaborative.

Her second book, The Software Requirements Memory Jogger (GOAL/QPC, 2005) is the go to industry guide for requirements good practices.

Ellen is a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) and has extensive experience as a professional workshop facilitator, focusing on helping projects start smart through facilitated workshops.

Ellen is a Certified Scrum Master (CSM), an agile coach, and agile trainer with a passion about agile requirements. She works with large, complex products and helps teams elicit just enough requirements to achieve iteration and product goals.

She is an expert reviewer for the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK), a member of the IIBA Endorsed Education Provider committee, and advisor for several industry conferences.

Ellen writes articles for numerous online and print journals, has contributed to chapters to several books and speaks at a variety of conferences (e.g., Agile 20xx, Agile Development Practices, IEEE Requirements Engineering, ProjectSummit/Business Analysis World, Project World & World Congress for Business Analysis, Software Development Best Practices).

Ellen is a practitioner who works on client projects and also delivers training seminars.

Before founding EBG, Ellen spent 13 years as a manager, team leader, developer, and trainer with a major insurance and financial services organization.

GOAL/QPC

Since 1995 GOAL/QPC has been a leader in the world of Quality Management. GOAL/QPC's concisely written pocket guides, known as Memory Joggers, enable people at all organizational levels to learn and apply tools, methods and processes that are critically needed to attain world-class organizational excellence. With over 12M copies in circulation, our customers value our Memory Joggers as stand-alone learning resources or for use in a training environment. Made popular with our trademark format of "What is it, What does it do, How do I do it?" , published in a pocket sized spiral binding, users can quickly find and acquire knowledge and insight from the leading edge book content.

From the Back Cover

How to Use The Software Requirements Memory JoggerTM The Software Requirements Memory Jogger is a quick reference guide for you to use on the job or as a supplement to your training. It is designed to facilitate communication between business and technical teams as they define requirements for software projects. It includes the tools, techniques, and models team members will use to elicit, analyze, specify, validate, and manage their software requirements. The book also contains a case study example, set off on a blue background, to show you how to use these tools, techniques, and models in each step of the process.Not sure what tool, technique, or model to use? Just refer to the User Requirements Model Roadmap in Chapter 4 to direct your efforts. Then refer to the "What Tools and Techniques Will I Use?" chart at the beginning of each chapter to guide you through the process of defining the requirements.Because many of the terms in this book may not be defined by readers in exactly the same way, we have included a glossary as one of the book's appendices, to ensure that all readers "speak the same language." The terms that are included in the glossary are shown in blue italics the first time they appear in the text, to let you know that the term is defined in the back of the book.You will also find a list of references and resources in the back of the book, in case you want to further your understanding of the tools and concepts in this Memory Jogger . This list is not meant to be all-inclusive, but it does include the resources that the author felt would be the most helpful to the reader at the time of publication.We hope that you will find this book to be an invaluable tool that you will use often as you define, develop, and manage your requirements.Contents Acknowledgments ..iii Publisher's Note iv How to Use The Software Requirements Memory Jogger v 1. Overview of Software Requirements 1 2. Setting the Stage for Requirements Development 27 Vision Statement Glossary Requirements Risk Mitigation Strategy 3. Elicit the Requirements 43 Requirements Source List Stakeholder Cate-gories Stakeholder Profiles Interviews with Stakeholders Facilitated Workshops Explora-tory Prototypes Focus Groups Observation User Task Analysis Existing Documentation Study Surveys Stakeholder Elicitation Plan 4. Analyze the Requirements 109 Relationship Map Process Map Context Dia-gram Event-Response Table Business Policies Actor Table Use Cases Dialog Map Data Model State Diagram Business Rules Good Modeling Practices Prioritized Requirements 5. Specify the Requirements 231 User Requirements Document Software Requirements Specification Document 6. Validate the Requirements 261 Peer Review User Acceptance Tests Model Validation Operational Prototype 7. Manage the Requirements 281 Change Control Policies and Procedures Re-quirements Attributes Requirements Trace Matrices 8. Adapting Requirements Practices to Projects 295 Project Types Change-Driven vs. Risk-Driven Projects Appendices 311 References, Bibliography, and Additional Resources Analysis Models Verbs and Phrases to Use in Requirements Models Software Requirements Specification Inspection Checklist Quality Attributes and Their Metrics Ambiguous Words and Phrases to Avoid When Describing Quality At-tributes Questions for Requirements Retro-spectives Glossary

From the Inside Flap

Publisher s Note Currently, about two-thirds of all software projects undertaken fail to deliver what the customers and users want in a timely, cost-effective way, resulting in billions of dollars lost annually. One of the main reasons that these projects fail is because the teams convened fail to adequately define the software requirements early in the development process. When businesspeople and technical people sit down together to develop new software or to replace existing software, they often find that they have trouble expressing these needs in a way that other team members can understand. Our goal in creating The Software Requirements Memory Jogger is to provide a resource that analysts, workshop facilitators, project managers, software developers, and business managers can use to communicate their needs and create a shared understanding when talking about software requirements. This book provides the tools, techniques, and models that team members need to remove barriers to communication and help them achieve their goals. This practical, user-friendly resource is a must for each member of the team and for every employee whose work affects or is affected by the software development process, because it simplifies the process of defining, developing, and managing software requirements. This book will help provide the information that employees and team members need to successfully communicate about and create software that meets the demands of customers and stakeholders. We believe that the insights and information in this book create a valuable resource that allows teams to attain the highest product quality and reach their performance goals. We hope you will agree.Dan Picard Project Leader GOAL/QPC

Edition details

• Publisher: Goal/QPC
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 157681114X
• ISBN 13: 9781576811146
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• Illustrator: Janet MacCausland, Michele Kierstead
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360
• Editor: Daniel Picard