Software Requirements Essentials: Core Practices for Successful Business Analysis

20 Best Practices for Developing and Managing Requirements on Any Project.

Software  Requirements Essentials presents 20 core practices for successful  requirements planning, elicitation, analysis, specification, validation,  and management. Leading requirements experts Karl Wiegers and Candase  Hokanson focus on the practices most likely to deliver superior value  for both traditional and agile projects, in any application domain.  These core practices help teams understand business problems, engage the  right participants, articulate better solutions, improve communication,  implement the most valuable functionality in the right sequence, and  adapt to change and growth.

Concise and tightly focused, this  book offers just enough pragmatic "how-to" detail for you to apply the  core practices with confidence, whether you're a business analyst,  requirements engineer, product manager, product owner, or developer.  Using it, your entire team can build a shared understanding of key  concepts, terminology, techniques, and rationales--and work together  more effectively on every project.

This book describes the twenty  most important practices that help software teams create a set of  requirements to serve as the foundation for the subsequent development  work. These practices broadly apply regardless of the type of product  the team is creating or their development approach. Some software teams  work not on discrete development projects but on existing products that  demand ongoing modifications and new functionality. The people who are  responsible for requirements work on product teams like those will find  the practices in this book equally applicable to their work.

This  is the CliffsNotes version of many software requirements books, rolled  into one. By nature of it being consciously focused and condensed, you  should not expect massive details or full examples of every topic in  Software Requirements Essentials. For each of the many techniques  presented, you’ll get a little what, a little why, and a little  how—enough to get you started and motivated. When you want more, follow  the numerous links provided to reference materials.

Learn how to:

Clarify problems, define business objectives, and set solution boundaries
Identify stakeholders and decision makers
Explore user tasks, events, and responses
Assess data concepts and relationships
Elicit and evaluate quality attributes
Analyze requirements and requirement sets, create models and prototypes, and set priorities
Specify requirements in a consistent, structured, and well-documented fashion
Review, test, and manage change to requirements

"I  once read the ten best-selling requirements engineering books of the  prior ten years. This one book succinctly presents more useful  information than those ten books combined."
--Mike Cohn, author of User Stories Applied and co-founder, Scrum Alliance

"Diamonds  come about when a huge amount of carbon atoms are compressed. Karl and  Candase have done something very similar: they have compressed their  vast requirements knowledge into 20 gems they call 'core practices.'  These practices are potent stuff, and I recommend that they become part  of everyone's requirements arsenal."
--James Robertson, author of Mastering the Requirements Process and Business Analysis Agility

"Long  story short: if you are going to read only one requirements book, this  is it. Software Requirements Essentials distills the wealth of  information found in Software Requirements and many other texts down to  twenty of the most important requirements activities that apply on  nearly all projects. Today's busy BA simply doesn't have the time to  read a lengthy instructive guide front-to-back. But they should find the  time to read this book."
--From the Foreword by Joy Beatty, COO, ArgonDigital

"Software  Requirements Essentials will be a high-value addition to your business  analysis library. Anyone looking to improve their business analysis  practices will find great practical advice they'll be able to apply  immediately."
--Laura Paton, Principal Consultant, BA Academy, Inc.