Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise

Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise

by Dean Leffingwell
Released December 2010
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780321685438

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to live online training experiences, plus books, videos, and digital content from O’Reilly and nearly 200 trusted publishing partners.

Start your free trial

Book description

This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

“We need better approaches to understanding and managing software requirements, and Dean provides them in this book. He draws ideas from three very useful intellectual pools: classical management practices, Agile methods, and lean product development. By combining the strengths of these three approaches, he has produced something that works better than any one in isolation.”

—From the Foreword by Don Reinertsen, President of Reinertsen & Associates; author of Managing the Design Factory; and leading expert on rapid product development

Effective requirements discovery and analysis is a critical best practice for serious application development. Until now, however, requirements and Agile methods have rarely coexisted peacefully. For many enterprises considering Agile approaches, the absence of effective and scalable Agile requirements processes has been a showstopper for agile adoption. In Agile Software Requirements, Dean Leffingwell shows exactly how to create effective requirements in Agile environments.

  • Part I presents the “big picture” of Agile requirements in the enterprise, and describes an overall process model for Agile requirements at the project team, program, and portfolio levels

  • Part II describes a simple and lightweight, yet comprehensive model that Agile project teams can use to manage requirements

  • Part III shows how to develop Agile requirements for complex systems that require the cooperation of multiple teams

  • Part IV guides enterprises in developing Agile requirements for ever-larger “systems of systems,” application suites, and product portfolios

This book will help you leverage the benefits of Agile without sacrificing the value of effective requirements discovery and analysis. You’ll find proven solutions you can apply right now–whether you’re a software developer or tester, executive, project/program manager, architect, or team leader.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Praise for Agile Software Requirements
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication Page
  6. Contents
  7. Foreword
  8. Preface
  9. Acknowledgments
  10. About the Author
  11. Part I: Overview: The Big Picture
    1. Chapter 1. A Brief History of Software Requirements Methods
    2. Chapter 2. The Big Picture of Agile Requirements
    3. Chapter 3. Agile Requirements for the Team
    4. Chapter 4. Agile Requirements for the Program
    5. Chapter 5. Agile Requirements for the Portfolio
      1. Case Study: Tendril Platform
  12. Part II: Agile Requirements for the Team
    1. Chapter 6. User Stories
    2. Chapter 7. Stakeholders, User Personas, and User Experiences
    3. Chapter 8. Agile Estimating and Velocity
    4. Chapter 9. Iterating, Backlog, Throughput, and Kanban
    5. Chapter 10. Acceptance Testing
    6. Chapter 11. Role of the Product Owner
    7. Chapter 12. Requirements Discovery Toolkit
  13. Part III: Agile Requirements for the Program
    1. Chapter 13. Vision, Features, and Roadmap
    2. Chapter 14. Role of the Product Manager
    3. Chapter 15. The Agile Release Train
    4. Chapter 16. Release Planning
    5. Chapter 17. Nonfunctional Requirements
    6. Chapter 18. Requirements Analysis Toolkit
    7. Chapter 19. Use Cases
  14. Part IV: Agile Requirements for the Portfolio
    1. Chapter 20. Agile Architecture
    2. Chapter 21. Rearchitecting with Flow
    3. Chapter 22. Moving to Agile Portfolio Management
    4. Chapter 23. Investment Themes, Epics, and Portfolio Planning
    5. Chapter 24. Conclusion
  15. Appendix A. Context-Free Interview
  16. Appendix B. Vision Document Template
  17. Appendix C. Release Planning Readiness Checklist
  18. Appendix D. Agile Requirements Enterprise Backlog Meta-model
  19. Bibliography
  20. Index
  21. The Agile Enterprise Big Picture
  22. Footnotes
    1. Chapter 1
    2. Chapter 2
    3. Chapter 3
    4. Chapter 4
    5. Chapter 5
    6. Chapter 6
    7. Chapter 8
    8. Chapter 9
    9. Chapter 10
    10. Chapter 11
    11. Chapter 12
    12. Chapter 13
    13. Chapter 14
    14. Chapter 15
    15. Chapter 16
    16. Chapter 18
    17. Chapter 19
    18. Chapter 20
    19. Chapter 21
    20. Chapter 22
    21. Chapter 23

Product information

  • Title: Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise
  • Author(s): Dean Leffingwell
  • Release date: December 2010
  • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
  • ISBN: 9780321685438