Software Requirements Essentials: Core Practices for Successful Business Analysis

Description

Practices for Developing and Managing Requirements on Any Project. This book describes the twenty most important practices that help software teams create a set of requirements to serve as the foundation for the subsequent development work. These practices broadly apply regardless of the type of product the team is creating or their development approach. Some software teams work not on discrete development projects but on existing products that demand ongoing modifications and new functionality. The people who are responsible for requirements work on product teams like those will find the practices in this book equally applicable to their work. 1.Foreword 2 Acknowledgments About the Authors 4 1. Essentials of Software Requirements 1 Requirements Defined 2 Good Practices for Requirements Engineering 3 Who Does All This Stuff? 4 Some Recurrent Themes 5 The Life and Times of Requirements 6 Getting Started 7 2. Laying the Foundation 1 Practice #1. Understand the problem before converging on a solution. 2 Practice #2. Define business objectives. 3 Practice #3. Define the solution’s boundaries. 4 Practice #4. Identify and characterize stakeholders. 5 Practice #5. Identify empowered decision makers. 6 3. Requirements Elicitation 1 Practice #6. Understand what users need to do with the solution. 2 Practice #7. Identify events and responses. 3 Practice #8. Assess data concepts and relationships. 4 Practice #9. Elicit and evaluate quality attributes. 5 4. Requirements Analysis 1 Practice #10. Analyze requirements and requirement sets. 2 Practice #11. Create requirements models. 3 Practice #12. Create and evaluate prototypes. 4 Practice #13. Prioritize the requirements. 5 5. Requirements Specification 1 Practice #14. Write requirements in consistent ways. 2 Practice #15. Organize requirements in a structured fashion. 3 Practice #16. Identify and document business rules. 4 Practice #17. Create a glossary. 5 6. Requirements Validation 1 Practice #18. Review and test the requirements. 2 7. Requirements Management 1 Practice #19. Establish and manage requirements baselines. 2 Practice #20. Manage changes to requirements effectively. 3 Appendix: Summary of Practices