Software Requirements, Second Edition

Author Karl E. Wiegers Pages 544 Disk N/A Level Intermediate Published 02/26/2003 ISBN 9780735618794 Price $39.99 To see this book's discounted price, select a reseller below.	More Information About the Book Table of Contents Sample Chapter Index Related Series About the Author Support: Book & CD Rate this book

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
PART I   SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS: WHAT, WHY, AND WHO
1    The Essential Software Requirement	3
Software Requirements Defined	7
Some Interpretations of Requirement	7
Levels of Requirements	8
What Requirements Are Not	12
Requirements Development and Management	12
Requirements Development	13
Requirements Management	14
Every Project Has Requirements	15
When Bad Requirements Happen to Nice People	17
Insufficient User Involvement	18
Creeping User Requirements	18
Ambiguous Requirements	18
Gold Plating	19
Minimal Specification	19
Overlooked User Classes	20
Inaccurate Planning	20
Benefits from a High-Quality Requirements Process	20
Characteristics of Excellent Requirements	22
Requirement Statement Characteristics	22
Requirements Specification Characteristics	24
2   Requirements from the Customer's Perspective	27
Who Is the Customer?	29
The Customer-Development Partnership	31
Requirements Bill of Rights for Software Customers	33
Requirements Bill of Responsibilities for Software Customers	36
What About Sign-Off?	39
3    Good Practices for Requirements Engineering	43
Knowledge	45
Requirements Elicitation	47
Requirements Analysis	50
Requirements Specification	52
Requirements Validation	53
Requirements Management	54
Project Management	56
Getting Started with New Practices	57
A Requirements Development Process	59
4    The Requirements Analyst	63
The Requirements Analyst Role	63
The Analyst's Tasks	65
Essential Analyst Skills	68
Essential Analyst Knowledge	70
The Making of an Analyst	71
The Former User	71
The Former Developer	72
The Subject Matter Expert	73
Creating a Collaborative Environment	73
PART II    SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS DEVELOPMENT
5    Establishing the Product Vision and Project Scope	77
Defining the Vision Through Business Requirements	78
Conflicting Business Requirements	80
Business Requirements and Use Cases	81
Vision and Scope Document	81
1. Business Requirements	83
2. Vision of the Solution	85
3. Scope and Limitations	86
4. Business Context	88
The Context Diagram	90
Keeping the Scope in Focus	91
6    Finding the Voice of the Customer	95
Sources of Requirements	96
User Classes	97
Finding User Representatives	101
The Product Champion	103
External Product Champions	104
Product Champion Expectations	105
Multiple Product Champions	106
Selling the Product Champion Idea	107
Product Champion Traps to Avoid	108
Who Makes the Decisions?	109
7    Hearing the Voice of the Customer	113
Requirements Elicitation	115
Elicitation Workshops	117
Classifying Customer Input	119
Some Cautions About Elicitation	125
Finding Missing Requirements	126
How Do You Know When You're Done?	129
8    Understanding User Requirements	131
The Use-Case Approach	133
Use Cases and Usage Scenarios	134
Identifying Use Cases	138
Documenting Use Cases	139
Use Cases and Functional Requirements	145
Benefits of Use Cases	147
Use-Case Traps to Avoid	148
Event-Response Tables	149
9    Playing by the Rules	153
The Rules of the Business	154
Facts	155
Constraints	156
Action Enablers	157
Inferences	158
Computations	158
Documenting Business Rules	160
Business Rules and Requirements	161
10    Documenting the Requirements	165
The Software Requirements Specification	166
Labeling Requirements	168
Dealing with Incompleteness	169
User Interfaces and the SRS	170
A Software Requirements Specification Template	171
1. Introduction	172
2. Overall Description	173
3. System Features	175
4. External Interface Requirements	176
5. Other Nonfunctional Requirements	178
6. Other Requirements	180
Appendix A: Glossary	180
Appendix B: Analysis Models	180
Appendix C: Issues List	181
Guidelines for Writing Requirements	181
Sample Requirements, Before and After	185
The Data Dictionary	190
11    A Picture Is Worth 1024 Words	193
Modeling the Requirements	194
From Voice of the Customer to Analysis Models	195
Data Flow Diagram	197
Entity-Relationship Diagram	200
State-Transition Diagram	203
Dialog Map	206
Class Diagrams	210
Decision Tables and Decision Trees	212
A Final Reminder	214
12    Beyond Functionality: Software Quality Attributes	215
Quality Attributes	216
Defining Quality Attributes	218
Attributes Important to Users	219
Attributes Important to Developers	225
Performance Requirements	227
Defining Nonfunctional Requirements By Using Planguage	228
Attribute Trade-Offs	229
Implementing Nonfunctional Requirements	231
13    Risk Reduction Through Prototyping	233
Prototyping: What and Why	234
Horizontal Prototypes	235
Vertical Prototypes	236
Throwaway Prototypes	236
Evolutionary Prototypes	238
Paper and Electronic Prototypes	240
Prototype Evaluation	242
The Risks of Prototyping	243
Prototyping Success Factors	245
14    Setting Requirement Priorities	247
Why Prioritize Requirements?	248
Games People Play with Priorities	249
A Prioritization Scale	250
Prioritization Based on Value, Cost, and Risk	252
15    Validating the Requirements	259
Reviewing Requirements	262
The Inspection Process	264
Requirements Review Challenges	272
Testing the Requirements	273
Defining Acceptance Criteria	280
16    Special Requirements Development Challenges	283
Requirements for Maintenance Projects	283
Begin Capturing Information	284
Practice New Requirements Techniques	287
Follow the Traceability Chain	287
Update the Documentation	288
Requirements for Package Solutions	288
Develop Use Cases	289
Consider Business Rules	290
Define Quality Requirements	290
Requirements for Outsourced Projects	291
Requirements for Emergent Projects	293
Casual User Requirements Specification	294
On-Site Customer	295
Early and Frequent Prioritization	296
Simple Change Management	296
17    Beyond Requirements Development	297
From Requirements to Project Plans	298
Requirements and Estimation	300
Requirements and Scheduling	303
From Requirements to Designs and Code	304
From Requirements to Tests	307
From Requirements to Success	309
PART III    SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS MANAGEMENT
18    Requirements Management Principles and Practices	313
The Requirements Baseline	315
Requirements Management Procedures	315
Requirements Version Control	317
Requirement Attributes	319
Tracking Requirements Status	321
Measuring Requirements Management Effort	324
19    Change Happens	327
Managing Scope Creep	329
The Change-Control Process	331
Change-Control Policy	332
Change-Control Process Description	333
The Change Control Board	338
CCB Composition	339
CCB Charter	339
Change-Control Tools	341
Measuring Change Activity	342
Change Isn't Free: Impact Analysis	344
Impact Analysis Procedure	345
Impact Analysis Report Template	350
20    Links in the Requirements Chain	353
Tracing Requirements	354
Motivations for Tracing Requirements	357
The Requirements Traceability Matrix	358
Tools for Requirements Tracing	362
Requirements Traceability Procedure	364
Is Requirements Traceability Feasible? Is It Necessary?	365
21    Tools for Requirements Management	367
Benefits of Using a Requirements Management Tool	370
Requirements Management Tool Capabilities	372
Implementing Requirements Management Automation	374
Selecting a Tool	374
Changing the Culture	375
Making Requirements Management Tools Work for You	378
PART IV    IMPLEMENTING REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING
22    Improving Your Requirements Processes	381
How Requirements Relate to Other Project Processes	382
Requirements and Various Stakeholder Groups	384
Fundamentals of Software Process Improvement	386
The Process Improvement Cycle	389
Assess Current Practices	389
Plan Improvement Actions	390
Create, Pilot, and Implement New Processes	392
Evaluate Results	393
Requirements Engineering Process Assets	395
Requirements Development Process Assets	396
Requirements Management Process Assets	398
Requirements Process Improvement Road Map	399
23    Software Requirements and Risk Management	401
Fundamentals of Software Risk Management	403
Elements of Risk Management	403
Documenting Project Risks	404
Planning for Risk Management	407
Requirements-Related Risks	408
Requirements Elicitation	408
Requirements Analysis	410
Requirements Specification	410
Requirements Validation	411
Requirements Management	411
Risk Management Is Your Friend	412
Epilogue	415
A    Current Requirements Practice Self-Assessment	417
B    Requirements and Process Improvement Models	425
The Capability Maturity Model for Software	425
CMMI-SE/SW	428
Requirements Management Process Area	430
Requirements Development Process Area	430
C    Requirements Troubleshooting Guide	433
Root Cause Analysis	434
Common Symptoms of Requirements Problems	435
Common Barriers to Implementing Solutions	436
D    Sample Requirements Documents	457
Vision and Scope Document	458
Use Cases	463
Software Requirements Specification	469
Business Rules	482
GLOSSARY	483
REFERENCES	491
INDEX	505

Last Updated: February 7, 2003

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