Managing software requirements: a use case approach

✍ Scribed by Leffingwell, Dean;Widrig, Don;Yourdon, Ed(Foreword)

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Year: 2003;2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 544
• Series: Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series
• Edition: 2. ed., 11th pr
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"Many projects fail because developers fail to build the right thing. Developers of any kind of application should read this book."Grady Booch

"A comprehensive solution to the requirements challenges faced by every development team. Full of insight and ideas all developers can learn from."Ivar Jacobson

Despite the wealth of development knowledge, experience, and tools available today, a substantial percentage of software projects fail, often because requirements are not correctly determined and defined at the outset, or are not managed correctly as the project unfolds. This second edition of the popular textManaging Software Requirementsfocuses on this critical cause of failure and offers a practical, proven approach to building systems that meet customers' needs on time and within budget.

Using an accessible style, their own war stories, and a comprehensive case study, the authors show how analysts and developers can effectively identify requirements by applying a variety of techniques, centered on the power of use cases. The book illustrates proven techniques for determining, implementing, and validating requirements. It describes six vital Team Skills for managing requirements throughout the lifecycle of a project: Analyzing the Problem, Understanding User Needs, Defining the System, Managing Scope, Refining the System Definition, and Building the Right System.Managing Software Requirements, Second Edition, specifically addresses the ongoing challenge of managing change and describes a process for assuring that project scope is successfully defined and agreed upon by all stakeholders.

Topics covered include:

The five steps in problem analysis
Business modeling and system engineering
Techniques for eliciting requirements from customers and stakeholders
Establishing and managing project scope
Applying and refining use cases
Product management
Transitioning from requirements to design and implementation
Transitioning from use cases to test cases
Agile requirements methods

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Foreword......Page 20
Preface to the Second Edition......Page 26
Preface to the First Edition......Page 32
Introduction......Page 40
The Goal of Software Development......Page 44
A Look at the Data......Page 45
The Root Causes of Project Success and Failure......Page 46
Summary......Page 52
Definitions......Page 54
Application of Requirements Management Techniques......Page 56
The Road Map......Page 57
Summary......Page 60
Traditional Software Process Models......Page 62
The Iterative Approach......Page 66
Requirements in the Iterative Model......Page 69
Summary......Page 70
Chapter 4 The Software Team......Page 72
Software Development as a Team Activity......Page 73
The Case Study......Page 76
Summary......Page 78
Team Skill 1 Analyzing the Problem......Page 80
Chapter 5 The Five Steps in Problem Analysis......Page 82
Step 1: Gain Agreement on the Problem Definition......Page 84
Step 2: Understand the Root Causes—The Problem Behind the Problem......Page 85
Step 3: Identify the Stakeholders and the Users......Page 89
Step 4: Define the Solution System Boundary......Page 91
Step 5: Identify the Constraints to Be Imposed on the Solution......Page 94
Looking Ahead......Page 96
Chapter 6 Business Modeling......Page 98
Using Software Engineering Techniques for Business Modeling......Page 99
From the Business Model to the Systems Model......Page 103
Summary......Page 104
Looking Ahead......Page 105
Chapter 7 Systems Engineering of Software-Intensive Systems......Page 106
What Is Systems Engineering?......Page 107
Requirements Allocation in Systems Engineering......Page 110
The Case Study: Systems Engineering for HOLIS......Page 116
Summary......Page 124
Team Skill 1 Summary......Page 125
Team Skill 2 Understanding User and Stakeholder Needs......Page 126
Chapter 8 The Challenge of Requirements Elicitation......Page 128
Barriers to Elicitation......Page 129
Summary......Page 132
Stakeholder and User Needs......Page 134
Features......Page 135
Summary......Page 138
Chapter 10 Interviewing......Page 140
Solutions-Context Questions......Page 141
The Moment of Truth: The Interview......Page 142
Compiling the Needs Data......Page 145
A Note on Questionnaires......Page 146
Summary......Page 147
Accelerating the Decision Process......Page 148
Preparing for the Workshop......Page 149
Setting the Agenda......Page 153
Running the Workshop......Page 154
Summary......Page 156
Chapter 12 Brainstorming and Idea Reduction......Page 158
Live Brainstorming......Page 159
Idea Reduction......Page 161
The Case Study: The HOLIS Requirements Workshop......Page 165
Summary......Page 170
Chapter 13 Storyboarding......Page 172
Types of Storyboards......Page 173
What Storyboards Do......Page 174
Tools for Storyboarding......Page 175
Tips for Storyboarding......Page 176
Summary......Page 177
Team Skill 2 Summary......Page 181
Team Skill 3 Defining the System......Page 182
Chapter 14 A Use Case Primer......Page 186
The Benefits of Use Cases......Page 187
Use Case Basics......Page 188
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building the Use-Case Model......Page 191
On Use Cases, Storyboarding, and User Interface Design......Page 195
The Case Study: The HOLIS Use Cases......Page 197
Summary......Page 202
Chapter 15 Organizing Requirements Information......Page 204
Organizing Requirements of Complex Hardware and Software Systems......Page 205
Organizing Requirements for Product Families......Page 207
The Case Study: Organizing the HOLIS Requirements......Page 209
Looking Ahead......Page 211
Chapter 16 The Vision Document......Page 212
Components of the Vision Document......Page 213
The Delta Vision Document......Page 216
Summary......Page 220
Chapter 17 Product Management......Page 222
The Role of the Product Champion......Page 223
The Product Manager in a Software Product Company......Page 224
Primary Activities for a Product Manager......Page 226
Supporting Activities......Page 236
The Product Champion in an IS/IT Shop......Page 237
Summary......Page 239
Team Skill 3 Summary......Page 240
Team Skill 4 Managing Scope......Page 242
The Problem of Project Scope......Page 246
The Hard Question......Page 249
The Requirements Baseline......Page 250
Assessing Effort......Page 251
Adding the Risk Element......Page 253
Reducing Scope......Page 255
The Case Study: Scope Management for HOLIS......Page 257
Summary......Page 261
Engaging Customers to Manage Their Project Scope......Page 262
Negotiating with the Customer......Page 263
Managing the Baseline......Page 264
Summary......Page 266
Team Skill 4 Summary......Page 267
Team Skill 5 Refining the System Definition......Page 268
Chapter 20 Software Requirements—A More Rigorous Look......Page 270
Looking Deeper into Software Requirements......Page 271
The Requirements Dilemma: What versus How......Page 273
More on Requirements versus Design......Page 277
A Further Characterization of Requirements......Page 279
Looking Ahead......Page 280
How Use Cases Evolve......Page 282
The Scope of a Use Case......Page 283
The Case Study: Anatomy of a Simple Use Case......Page 284
Extending Use Cases......Page 290
Including Use Cases in Other Use Cases......Page 293
Looking Ahead......Page 295
The Role of the Supplementary Specification......Page 296
Exploring Nonfunctional Requirements......Page 297
Understanding Design Constraints......Page 302
Linking the Supplementary Specification to the Use Cases......Page 305
Template for the Supplementary Specification......Page 306
Looking Ahead......Page 308
Finding the "Sweet Spot"......Page 310
Techniques for Disambiguation......Page 315
Summary......Page 316
Chapter 24 Technical Methods for Specifying Requirements......Page 318
Pseudocode......Page 319
Finite State Machines......Page 320
Decision Tables and Decision Trees......Page 322
Activity Diagrams......Page 323
Entity-Relationship Models......Page 324
Summary......Page 326
Team Skill 5 Summary......Page 327
Team Skill 6 Building the Right System......Page 328
Chapter 25 From Use Cases to Implementation......Page 330
Mapping Requirements Directly to Design and Code......Page 331
Realizing Use Cases in the Design Model......Page 338
From Design to Implementation......Page 341
Looking Ahead......Page 342
A Tester's Perspective: Musings on the Big Black Box......Page 344
Common Testing Terms......Page 346
Relationships of Test Artifacts......Page 347
Use-Case Scenarios......Page 348
Deriving Test Cases from Use Cases: A Four-Step Process......Page 349
Managing Test Coverage......Page 355
Black-Box versus White-Box Testing with Use Cases......Page 356
Summary......Page 357
The Role of Traceability in Systems Development......Page 358
The Traceability Relationship......Page 359
A Generalized Traceability Model......Page 361
Using Traceability Tools......Page 372
Proceeding without Traceability Tools......Page 373
Summary......Page 374
Why Do Requirements Change?......Page 376
"We Have Met the Enemy, and They Is Us"......Page 379
A Process for Managing Change......Page 380
Requirements Configuration Management......Page 388
Looking Ahead......Page 393
Chapter 29 Assessing Requirements Quality in Iterative Development......Page 394
Software Project Quality......Page 395
Assessing Quality in Iterative Development......Page 396
Requirements Artifacts Sets......Page 397
Performing the Assessment......Page 399
Quality Assessment Checklists for Requirements......Page 400
Summary......Page 407
Team Skill 6 Summary......Page 409
Looking Ahead......Page 410
Dedication......Page 414
Introduction......Page 415
Team Skill 1: Analyzing the Problem......Page 416
Team Skill 3: Defining the System......Page 417
Team Skill 4: Managing Scope......Page 418
Team Skill 6: Building the Right System......Page 419
Mitigating Requirements Risk with Effective Requirements Practices......Page 422
Methodology Design Goals......Page 423
Documentation Is a Means to an End......Page 426
An Extreme Requirements Method......Page 427
An Agile Requirements Method......Page 431
A Robust Requirements Method......Page 433
Summary......Page 436
Selecting Your Requirements Approach......Page 438
On to the Next Release!......Page 442
Appendixes......Page 444
Appendix A: HOLIS Artifacts......Page 446
Appendix B: Vision Document Template......Page 476
Appendix C: Use-Case Specification Template......Page 488
Appendix D: Supplementary Specification Template......Page 492
Appendix E: Requirements Management in the Rational Unified Process......Page 498
Appendix F: Requirements Management in the SEI-CMM and within ISO 9000:2000......Page 512
Bibliography......Page 522
B......Page 526
C......Page 527
F......Page 529
L......Page 530
N......Page 531
P......Page 532
R......Page 533
S......Page 536
T......Page 538
U......Page 539
Y......Page 541

✦ Subjects

Nonfiction;Science;Computer Science;Programming;Business;Management;Reference