Mastering Software Project Requirements

“Mastering Software Project Requirements is an eye-opening look inside the world of requirements analysis that outlines the main reasons software and IT projects fail, and then shows how to succeed. It explains why requirements analysis is much more than just a list of features, and details multiple strategies and tactics to create the right requirements for any project.”

—Vincent Serpico, CEO, Spotlight Software


Adapted in part from Avionics Engineering specification DO-178, this book is a concise step-by-step guide to building and establishing the frameworks and models for the effective management and development of software requirements. It describes what great requirements must look like and who the real audience is for documentation. It then explains how to generate consistent, complete, and accurate requirements in exacting detail following a simple formula across the full life cycle from vague concept to detailed design-ready specifications.


Mastering Software Project Requirements will enable business analysts and project managers to decompose high-level solutions into granular requirements and to elevate their performance through due diligence and the use of better techniques to meet the particular needs of a given project without sacrificing quality, scope, or project schedules.


Key Features


--Identifies the attributes of good requirements and illustrates the life cycle from elicitation to analysis, specification to validation, explaining how to estimate, measure, benchmark, plan, manage, and deliver great software project requirements

--Presents a solid and reproducible framework for generating great requirements within the parameters of a specific project or enterprise architecture methodology and in projects that are agnostic of methodology

--Explains how various methodologies impact the results of requirements activities and provides strategies for adapting and aligning requirements activities to project frameworks and corresponding methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, WAgile, TOGAF and DO-178) to ensure the integrity of the requirements is maintained across multiple project frameworks

--Covers every shred of requirements documentation that a business analyst or project manager will consume and produce, as well as the context and audience of each artifact and deliverable created

--Re-defines the requirements process in pragmatic detail, and enables technology and business organizations to: reduce operating costs, increase alignment between technology products and business needs, and maximize return on investment of every implemented business solution by providing detailed task descriptions, key performance indicators, and benefits realization planning

--WAV offers downloadable templates for every aspect of requirements including estimation, and provides materials for academic instruction — available from the Web Added Value Download Resource Center at www.jrosspub.com/wav