Just Enough Requirements Management: Where Software Development Meets Marketing

Book description

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 2005).

If you develop software without understanding the requirements, you're wasting your time.

On the other hand, if a project spends too much time trying to understand the requirements, it will end up late and/or over-budget. And products that are created by such projects can be just as unsuccessful as those that fail to meet the basic requirements.

Instead, every company must make a reasonable trade-off between what's required and what time and resources are available.

Finding the right balance for your project may depend on many factors, including the corporate culture, the time-to-market pressure, and the criticality of the application. That is why requirements management—gathering requirements, identifying the "right" ones to satisfy, and documenting them—is essential.

Just Enough Requirements Management shows you how to discover, prune, and document requirements when you are subjected to tight schedule constraints. You'll apply just enough process to minimize risks while still achieving desired outcomes. You'll determine how many requirements are just enough to satisfy your customers while still meeting your goals for schedule, budget, and resources.

If your project has insufficient resources to satisfy all the requirements of your customers, you must read Just Enough Requirements Management.

Table of contents

  1. About This eBook
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Also Available from Dorset House Publishing
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Contents
  7. Preface
  8. One. Introduction
    1. Requirements
    2. Requirements Management
    3. Just Enough
    4. The Context of Requirements
    5. The Relationship Between Schedule and Requirements
    6. The Components of Requirements Management
    7. The Importance of Requirements Management
  9. Two. Requirements Elicitation
    1. Definitions and Terminology
    2. Why Do Elicitation?
    3. Elicitation Techniques
    4. The Result of Elicitation
    5. The Secrets of Just Enough Elicitation
  10. Three. Requirements Triage
    1. Definitions and Terminology
    2. Why Do Triage?
    3. Basic Triage Techniques
    4. Advanced Triage Techniques
    5. The Result of Triage
    6. The Secrets of Just Enough Triage
  11. Four. Requirements Specification
    1. Definitions and Terminology
    2. Classic Requirements Documentation Styles
    3. The Content of a Requirements Document
    4. The Role of a Requirements Document
    5. Qualities of a Requirements Document
    6. Specification Techniques
    7. The Result of Specification
    8. The Secrets of Just Enough Specification
  12. Five. Requirements Change
    1. Where Do Changes Come From?
    2. How to Keep Track of Requested Changes
    3. Choices for Handling the Changes
    4. The CCB Meeting
    5. The Secrets of Just Enough Change
  13. Six. Summary
    1. Requirements Elicitation
    2. Requirements Triage
    3. Requirements Specification
    4. Requirements Change Management
  14. Appendix A. Quick Recipes
    1. Brainstorm
    2. Decide What Is or Isn’t a Requirement
    3. Decide What to Build
    4. Produce a Requirements Document
    5. Assess the Quality of a Requirements Document
    6. Baseline the Requirements
    7. Ensure That Everybody Knows the Requirements
    8. Handle New Requirements After Baselining
    9. Handle Multiple Customers
  15. Appendix B. A Set of Documented Requirements
  16. References and Additional Readings
  17. Index
  18. About the Author
  19. Waltzing with Bears
  20. Peopleware

Product information

  • Title: Just Enough Requirements Management: Where Software Development Meets Marketing
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: July 2013
  • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
  • ISBN: 9780133491234