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Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise (Agile Software Development Series) [Hardcover]

Dean Leffingwell
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 6, 2011 0321635841 978-0321635846 1

“We need better approaches to understanding and managing software requirements, and Dean provides them in this book. He draws ideas from three very useful intellectual pools: classical management practices, Agile methods, and lean product development. By combining the strengths of these three approaches, he has produced something that works better than any one in isolation.”

–From the Foreword by Don Reinertsen, President of Reinertsen & Associates; author of Managing the Design Factory; and leading expert on rapid product development

Effective requirements discovery and analysis is a critical best practice for serious application development. Until now, however, requirements and Agile methods have rarely coexisted peacefully. For many enterprises considering Agile approaches, the absence of effective and scalable Agile requirements processes has been a showstopper for Agile adoption. In Agile Software Requirements, Dean Leffingwell shows exactly how to create effective requirements in Agile environments.

  • Part I presents the “big picture” of Agile requirements in the enterprise, and describes an overall process model for Agile requirements at the project team, program, and portfolio levels
  • Part II describes a simple and lightweight, yet comprehensive model that Agile project teams can use to manage requirements
  • Part III shows how to develop Agile requirements for complex systems that require the cooperation of multiple teams
  • Part IV guides enterprises in developing Agile requirements for ever-larger “systems of systems,” application suites, and product portfolios

This book will help you leverage the benefits of Agile without sacrificing the value of effective requirements discovery and analysis. You’ll find proven solutions you can apply right now–whether you’re a software developer or tester, executive, project/program manager, architect, or team leader.


Frequently Bought Together

Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise (Agile Software Development Series) + User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development + Agile Estimating and Planning
Price for all three: $114.37

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Agile Software Requirements

 

“In my opinion, there is no book out there that more artfully addresses the specific needs of agile teams, programs, and portfolios all in one. I believe this book is an organizational necessity for any enterprise.”

Sarah Edrie, Director of Quality Engineering, Harvard Business School

 

Agile Software Requirements and Mr. Leffingwell’s teachings have been very influential and inspiring to our organization. They have allowed us to make critical cultural changes to the way we approach software development by following the framework he’s outlined here. It has been an extraordinary experience.”

Chris Chapman, Software Development Manager, Discount Tire

 

“This book supplies empirical wisdom connected with strong and very well-structured theory of succeeding with software projects of different scales. People new to agile, practitioners, or accomplished agilists–we all were waiting for such a book.”

Oleksandr (Alex) Yakyma, Agile Consultant, www.enter-Agile.com

 

“This book presents practical and proven agile approaches for managing software requirements for a team, collaborating teams of teams, and all across the enterprise. However, this is not only a great book on agile requirements engineering; rather, Leffingwell describes the bigger picture of how the enterprise can achieve the benefits of business agility by implementing lean product development flow. His ‘Big Picture’ of agile requirements is an excellent reference for any organization pursuing an intrinsically lean software development operational mode. Best of all, we’ve applied many of these principles and practices at Nokia (and even helped create some of them), and therefore we know they work.

Juha-Markus Aalto, Agile Change Program Manager, Nokia Corporation

 

“This pragmatic, easy-to-understand, yet thought-provoking book provides a hands-on guide to addressing a key problem that enterprises face: How to make requirements practices work effectively in large-scale agile environments. Dean Leffingwell’s focus on lean principles is refreshing and much needed!”

Per Kroll, author, and Chief Architect for Measured Improvements, IBM

 

“Agile programming is a fluid development environment. This book serves as a good starting point for learning.”

Brad Jackson, SAS Institute Inc.

 

“Dean Leffingwell captures the essence of agile in its entirety, all the way from the discrete user story in the ‘trenches’ to complex software portfolios at the enterprise level. The narrative balances software engineering theory with pragmatic implementation aspects in an easy-to-understand manner. It is a book that demands to be read in a single sitting.”

Israel Gat, http://theAgileexecutive.com, @Agile_exec on Twitter

 

“An incredibly complete, clear, concise, and pragmatic reference for agile software development. Much more than mere guidelines for creating requirements, building teams, and managing projects, this reference work belongs on the bookshelf of anyone and everyone involved with not only agile processes but software development in general.”

R.L. Bogetti, Lead System Designer, Baxter Healthcare

 

“This book covers software requirements from the team level to program and portfolio levels, including the architecture management and a consistent framework for the whole enterprise. We have practiced the multi-team release planning and the enterprise-level architecture work with kanban and achieved instant success in our organization. Combining the principles of the product development flow with the current large-scale agile and lean software development is a really novel concept. Well worth reading and trying out the ideas here.”

Santeri Kangas, Chief Software Architect, and Gabor Gunyho, Lean Change Agent, F-Secure Corp.

 

“Dean Leffingwell and his Agile Release Train (ART) concept guides us from teamlevel agile to enterprise-level agile. The ART concept is a very powerful tool in planning and managing large software programs and helps to identify and solve potential organizational roadblocks–early.”

Markku Lukkarinen, Head of Programs, Nokia Siemens Networks

About the Author

Dean Leffingwell, a thirty-year software industry veteran, has spent his career helping software teams achieve their goals. A renowned methodologist, author, coach, entrepreneur, and executive, he founded Requisite, Inc., makers of RequisitePro, and served as its CEO. As vice president at Rational Software (now part of IBM), he led the commercialization of the Rational Unified Process. As an independent consultant and as an advisor to Rally Software, he has helped entrepreneurial teams and large, distributed, multinational corporations implement Agile methods at scale. He is the author of Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises (Addison-Wesley, 2007) and is the lead author of Managing Software Requirements, Second Edition (Addison-Wesley, 2003), which has been translated into five languages.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (January 6, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0321635841
  • ISBN-13: 978-0321635846
  • Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biography of Dean Leffingwell

Dean Leffingwell is an entrepreneur, executive, author and consulting methodologist who provides agile transformation consulting services to large software enterprises.

Recently, Mr. Leffingwell was founder and CEO of consumer marketing identity company, ProQuo, Inc. He also served as chief methodologist to Rally Software (www.rallydev.com) where he focused on the application of agile development methods to large scale software development. Formerly, Mr. Leffingwell served as Sr. Vice President to Rational Software (now IBM's Rational Division), where his responsibilities included development and commercialization of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), ClearQuest, RequisitePro and the company's methodology and product training courses.

Mr. Leffingwell has been a student, coach and author of contemporary software development and management practices throughout his career.

He is the author of the following books (all form Addison-Wesley and all available on Amazon):

Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise (2011), This book provides practical, agile approaches to managing software requirements for teams and teams of teams, as well as practices that scale to the full enterprise architecture and portfolio level.

Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises (2007), focuses on the application of agile methods to large, distributed development organizations.

Managing Software Requirements: First (1999) and Second (2007) Editions.

Mr. Leffingwell holds a Masters Degree in Engineering from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

From 1993 to 1997, Leffingwell was founder and CEO of Requisite, Inc. , makers of RequisitePro, which was acquired by Rational in 1997. He was also the author of Requirements College, a three day software methods course. Prior to 1993, Leffingwell was founder, chairman and CEO of publicly held Colorado MEDtech, Inc. and it's predecessor company, RELA, Inc., a Boulder-based software, product development and manufacturing outsourcing company.

Mr. Leffingwell is an experienced entrepreneur and businessman who has served as a board member at a number of public and private companies throughout his career.

He can be reached at deanleffingwell@gmail.com.

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
(17)
4.6 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I still remember the first few pages of Managing Software Requirements: A Unified Approach (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series). I was in BWI waiting on my daughter's flight to arrive. The book opened with such a great beginning I knew I was going to love it. In a nutshell what I heard the authors say was we have years of experience that you don't, let us show you what we have learned so you don't have to repeat our mistakes. That is my number one reason for reading books. The message at the beginning of this book is the same.

I feel this is the first complete book on what an enterprise level agile process should look like. What baffles me is the number of enterprises I have been in that have not come close to implementing 10% of the process this book outlines, yet they call themselves agile and lean. The one thing this book brings to light is just how complex and advanced agile processes are. Like the book says, "it is not easy, it is agile".

This book has the caveat that certain skills are required for the agile teams to be successful. I agree with that completely. The thing I have a hard time with is the fact that agile processes assume such skill sets are readily available. They aren't. That is why I see such a mess in 90% of the attempts I have seen when enterprises attempt to go agile. Almost all of them will claim to be successful at implementing their agile processes, but budgets and bugs don't lie. Agile does not equate to simple or easy, actually the opposite is true.

So then does that mean agile methods should be avoided and this book is not worth reading? Absolutely not. It is one of the few books that may just help you implement a successful agile enterprise environment. If nothing else, it does not pull punches, so it will enlighten you as to just how difficult it is to pull it off. It is a must read for anyone out there claiming to be running an agile enterprise.

This book is unique in that it provides a complete view of all the roles throughout the enterprise that are involved with the process and does a great job of defining the activities they are involved with. The book calls the process Agile Enterprise Big Picture: Scaled Agile Delivery Model, or the Big Picture for short. The process has three levels, the Team level, the Program level, and the portfolio level.

The book starts out with a really cool overview of software development process models. The chapter goes from Waterfall to Spiral, RAD, RUP to Crystal, Scrum, XP, FDD, DSDM, Open UP, Kanban to Enterprise-Scale Adaptive Processes.

The rest of part one dedicates four more chapters to introducing the Agile Enterprise Big Picture: Scaled Agile Delivery Model (the Big Picture).

The book has three more parts, one for each process level. The Team level, the Program level, and the portfolio level. Each part has several chapters that drill deep into the details of each level.

One of the things I really like about the book is that it acknowledges the importance of software architecture. It does not go along with the common agile "emergent architecture" view. The book advocates intentional architecture. It also acknowledges project managers and doesn't just drop them from the picture.

Another thing I really like is that modernization is realized through the architectural epics. Modernization strategies are usually nonexistent in most enterprises until they find it is too late. Then they are implemented in a haphazard way creating so much more damage than necessary. This book makes modernization strategies first class citizens through architectural epics.

If you are in an enterprise environment and you are attempting to implement agile processes, this book is the book to have. Agile requires experience. This book is filled with experience from the trenches. The book is written well and the author's writing style makes it an easy read. As easy as you can make a topic that is so complex.

This books takes all the activities, artifacts, roles, responsibilities, and processes that have always made a successful software development project using classic software development processes such as the unified process and the RUP, and repositions them in their agile context.

All in all I highly recommend this book to anyone working in an enterprise level software development environment. The developer, project manager, tester, software architect, process engineer, business analyst, scrum master, product owner, project sponsor, CIO, CFO, and CEO could benefit from reading this book, even if you are not in an agile shop.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars VP, Development Ping Identity February 18, 2011
Format:Hardcover
This is an outstanding contribution to those serious about scaling and improving their agile development team and environment. Being an agile practitioner for 7 years, I have come to understand that different aspects of the process can be drag to getting superior product out on time. Leffingwell book takes these on clarity of the issues and what are expectations. I particularly like his treatment of the product manager's role and how it must change to run with an agile team. This is hard hitting, and often personal stuff, but it goes right to a problem that many teams have in getting the right features to the market. I am encouraging all PM's in my company to read Dean's book and betting our delivery will improve in many ways. Again, a real contribution along many lines and I encourage all to practitioners to pick this one up.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Although many might tend to limit the concept of agile requirements to "user stories", this book reminds us that there could be more than just a post-it on an information radiator when we talk about requirements. The title of one of the initial chapters is "The Big Picture of Agile Requirements" and this book provides it, together with the small details that can help you write better stories.

Dean Leffingwell describes the general context of managing requirements in organizations based on a three levels view: portfolio, program and team. The concept of requirements is different at each of these levels: from the investment themes and epics of the enterprise strategy to the user stories implemented by teams during Scrum sprints. An interesting concept developed in the book is the Agile Release Train (ART) that aggregates user stories in features set. The goal is to adjust the team's capacity to produce software with the ability of customers to absorb it.

The book is very well written, achieving balance between a structured approach and easiness to read. It contains many case studies, templates and sample agenda that help relate the ideas expressed with the daily activities. Three appendixes at the end propose interviews and document templates, along with a release-planning checklist.

This book provides a detailed and extensive study of the agile gathering and management of requirements in enterprises and I will recommend it to everybody involved in some software requirement activity, from the business analyst to the project manager or developer.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the bests
Good explanation of the information and one of the best books about Agile Methodology, to all profile of IT workers or project managers.
Published 6 days ago by Gonçalo Martins
4.0 out of 5 stars A Path for the Unforgiven
It is difficult to improve on a review like the one Per Kroll wrote, but I do need to add my own opinion on the book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Joseph Butson
5.0 out of 5 stars Agile Software Requirements Review
A must read for anyone in the Enterprise Agile space - CIOs, Portfolio Managers, Program and Project Managers. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Brian Dsouza
5.0 out of 5 stars Have you been frustrated trying to apply Scrum to the enterprise?
Then this is the book for you. Dean Leffingwell systematically decomposes and clarifies the model for applying Scrum to a large organization. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Armond Mehrabian
5.0 out of 5 stars A wholistic enterprise approach to Agile
Dean has put together a gem of a book, taking all of his experience working with large-scale implementations of Agile and consolidating it into a model that you can apply across... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Stephen Chin
5.0 out of 5 stars Going to be one of the classics
Well written and offers several techniques to make requirements and requirement testing manageable. Requirements are written in plan language that both the business and developers... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Geoffrey Corey
5.0 out of 5 stars Scaled Agile Coach
In Dean's previous book Scaling Software Agility; Dean lays the foundation for how to roll out Agile at an Enterprise level. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Chad Holdorf
4.0 out of 5 stars Book was not for me
The books arrived as expected, but I can't give you more than that because the books were not for me.
Published on April 11, 2011 by Barbara Fowler
1.0 out of 5 stars Good example
Wow, I just read the interview with the author and leafed through his book... what a waste of paper. While he holds true to the Agile mentality it's really not a viable construct. Read more
Published on April 4, 2011 by Ronin
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just requirements but a guide for Agile. Keep it within arms...
About a month ago I borrowed Dean's "Agile Software Requirements" book from a colleague and very soon after got a copy of my own. Read more
Published on February 23, 2011 by Craig Langenfeld
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