"If the purpose is to create one of the best books on requirements yet written, the authors have succeeded."

—Capers Jones

It is widely recognized that incorrect requirements account for up to 60 percent of errors in software products, and yet the majority of software development organizations do not have a formal requirements process. Many organizations appear willing to spend huge amounts on fixing and altering poorly specified software, but seem unwilling to invest a much smaller amount to get the requirements right in the first place.

Mastering the Requirements Process, Second Edition, sets out an industry-proven process for gathering and verifying requirements with an eye toward today's agile development environments. In this total update of the bestselling guide, the authors show how to discover precisely what the customer wants and needs while doing the minimum requirements work according to the project's level of agility.

Features include

• The Volere requirements process—completely specified, and revised for compatibility with agile environments

• A specification template that can be used as the basis for your own requirements specifications

• New agility ratings that help you funnel your efforts into only the requirements work needed for your particular development environment and project

• How to make requirements testable using fit criteria

• Iterative requirements gathering leading to faster delivery to the client

• Checklists to help identify stakeholders, users, nonfunctional requirements, and more

• Details on gathering and implementing requirements for iterative releases

• An expanded project sociology section for help with identifying and communicating with stakeholders

• Strategies for exploiting use cases to determine the best product to build

• Methods for reusing requirements and requirements patterns

• Examples showing how the techniques and templates are applied in real-world situations

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 26 Ratings

Fatal Fundamental Flaws (cont) - 2007-08-03
Reviewer Rating:
this book has not only the flaws identified below by F.C.Passavant - in addition it has inconsistencies in terminology, lots of ambiguity. it was difficult to map described precesses to those regarded in the field (i.e. IATF Release 3.1)

I found "Requirements Engineering" by Elizabeth Hull, Kenneth Jackson, and Jeremy Dick a much better choice.

Solid Practical Coverage of the Requirements Process - 2009-04-30
Reviewer Rating:
This book should be on the shelf of every Business Analyst professional. It provides excellent step-by-step guidance with solid illustrations and example material. It has a solid balance between academic theory and pragmatic goodies that every Business Analyst can utilize. Material presented is comprehensive, well-structured, and easily understandable. The customization applied in the 2nd edition relative to Agile theory is well presented and balanced. No hesitation in recommending the book.

This is my Standing Reference Book on Requirements - 2008-12-03
Reviewer Rating:
I have used this book, from its first printing, since August of 1999. It is my reference for requirements engineering. It has totally guided my approach here. It works. I personally know James Robertson, and he and Suzanne are brilliant thinkers, and the proof of that brilliance for me is the consistency of excellent results I get with their methodology.

A book to study - 2008-06-30
Reviewer Rating:
I recommend this book to anyone interested in discovering and documenting requirements whether the target is automation or not. It is comprehensive and very readable, but it is not dogmatic. The ideas it expresses can be used effectively with a wide range of methodologies.

I've been doing requirements for more than 20 years and I learned things from this book. The notion of the "Blast Off" (hate that term, love the concept) as a key political event reinforced and expanded ideas I had before. The extensive checklist for the "Blast Off" is much more thorough than anything I've ever put together myself. The idea of "Trolling for Requirements" also expanded my horizons. The Volare snow card is an excellent starting point for collecting requirements that emphasizes the point that understanding the rational behind a requirement is as important as understanding the requirement itself.

Over the years I've used this book as the basis for a series of brown bag lunches to help junior analysts better appreciate the nature of the requirements process. It has been generally well received. I've probably purchases over a dozen copies of this book to give to others, some of them with my own money. Along with Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design this is one of the first two books every business or system analyst should read.

Excellent book. - 2008-03-02
Reviewer Rating:
The first chapter should be read and re-read by every engineer out there. The bood provides a near turn-key requirements elicitation / engineering process.

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