Software Requirements

Abstract

Nothing is more important to a software project’s success than understanding what problems it needs to solve. Requirements provide the foundation for that success. If the development team and its customers don’t agree on the product’s capabilities and characteristics, the most likely outcome is one of those unpleasant software surprises that we’d all prefer to avoid. If your current requirements practices aren’t giving you the results you need, selectively and thoughtfully apply the techniques presented in this book that you think might help. Effective requirements engineering involves: ■■Engaging customer representatives early and extensively. ■■Developing requirements iteratively and incrementally. ■■Representing the requirements in various ways to make sure everyone understands them. ■■Assuring the requirements’ completeness and correctness with all stakeholder groups. ■■Finding the right supporting technology and practices to enable a shared view and ensure requirements integrity. ■■Controlling the way that requirements changes are made.