Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach (2nd Edition) [Hardcover]

Dean Leffingwell (Author), Don Widrig (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 032112247X | ISBN-13: 978-0321122476 | Publication Date: May 15, 2003 | Edition: 2

This Second Edition of the popular text Managing Software Requirements focuses on this critical cause of failure and offers a practical, proven approach to building systems that meet customers' needs on time and within budget. Using an approachable style, their own war stories and a comprehensive case study, the authors show how students can effectively identify requirements by applying a variety of techniques, centered on the power of use cases. The book illustrates proven techniques for determining, implementing, and validating requirements.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Many projects fail because developers fail to build the right thing. Developers of any kind of application should read this book." —Grady Booch

"A comprehensive solution to the requirements challenges faced by every development team. Full of insight and ideas all developers can learn from." —Ivar Jacobson

Despite the wealth of development knowledge, experience, and tools available today, a substantial percentage of software projects fail, often because requirements are not correctly determined and defined at the outset, or are not managed correctly as the project unfolds. This second edition of the popular text Managing Software Requirements focuses on this critical cause of failure and offers a practical, proven approach to building systems that meet customers' needs on time and within budget.

Using an accessible style, their own war stories, and a comprehensive case study, the authors show how analysts and developers can effectively identify requirements by applying a variety of techniques, centered on the power of use cases. The book illustrates proven techniques for determining, implementing, and validating requirements. It describes six vital Team Skills for managing requirements throughout the lifecycle of a project: Analyzing the Problem, Understanding User Needs, Defining the System, Managing Scope, Refining the System Definition, and Building the Right System. Managing Software Requirements, Second Edition, specifically addresses the ongoing challenge of managing change and describes a process for assuring that project scope is successfully defined and agreed upon by all stakeholders.

Topics covered include:

• The five steps in problem analysis
• Business modeling and system engineering
• Techniques for eliciting requirements from customers and stakeholders
• Establishing and managing project scope
• Applying and refining use cases
• Product management
• Transitioning from requirements to design and implementation
• Transitioning from use cases to test cases
• Agile requirements methods

032112247XB05082003

About the Author

Dean Leffingwell, software business development consultant and former Rational Software executive, is a recognized authority on software requirements. He was cofounder and chief executive officer of Requisite, Inc., where he developed RequisitePro, the highly successful requirements management software tool, and Requirements College, the basis of Rational's popular requirements management professional development course series.

Don Widrig is an independent technical writer and consultant. He developed and delivered Rational Software's RequisitePro Tool Training Course until his "retirement" to the mountains of Colorado in 1997. When he is not busy watching the elk in his yard, Don writes a regular column for his local newspaper and does pro bono work helping the townspeople deal with their computers. He was formerly the vice president of research and development at RELA, Inc., a producer of safety-critical, real-time systems.

032112247XAB05082003

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (May 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 032112247X
• ISBN-13: 978-0321122476
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,885 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 [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well organized and written, based on their vast experience, February 2, 2004

By 

Roselli Marcello (Pisa (Italy)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

I'm quite surprised to be the first reviewer of the second edition of this book since it ia a reference in requirements management.

After, but even during, reading this book you perceive that it's a sum up of their vast, deep and long experience. The authors are the implementors of RequisitePro the tool, now part of the Rational Suite, for requirements management, but this book is not a promo. Instead the whole process of gathering, organizing, and connecting (to following steps in the process) requirements is presented. It's clear to them that basically you have to collect the clouded needs of the stakeholders and formalize them in a set of documents that you have to give to the development team. And the entire process should effectively work, managing change.

After introductory chapters, you are presented with six skills a requisite team shoud have to effectively manage requrements and each skill is expressed, through different chapters, with what needs to be done and what needs to be produced.

I especially reccommend team skill 6 'Building the Right System' because in those chapters you find how to connect use cases to design (chapter 25), how to generate test cases from use cases (chapter 26), traceability techniques and tool from user needs to code (chapter 27). Besides this, team skill 4 'Managing scope'.

Don't forget to read chapter 30 that illustrates and compares extreme, agile, and roubust requirements gathering methodologies, and chapter 31 that sums up all the steps illustrated in the book, suggesting a methodology for requirements gathering based on the kind of project.

In the appendix you find chapters with the whole results of the case study (HOLIS), the detailed template of basic and fundamental documents for software requirements management, and, above all, two chapters one that is a brief presentation of RUP and another that is an indication on how to link the process so far developed to SEI-CMM and ISO 9000:2000.

Another useful feature is the fact that every concept is illustrated with a simple,visual example (in visual modeling philosophy) that allows you to impress the concept in mind. At the end you come out with all the concepts you found (even from different sources, but unrelated) with the big picture.
This is my first book on software requirements but it has many pros and only one con. It's a recent book that is aware of the state-of-the-art in managing software requirements (see bibliography), and I'm sure that other books in this field can't be overwhelmingly better. The only con, that is easily resolvable, is that the documents illustrated could have been included in a CD with the book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Book on Requirements, April 2, 2006

By 

Quality Man "yway6" (Arizona) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

Being in the software industry for about 10 years, I had known that our teams often did a poor job of managing, gathering, and understanding requirements. Our projects suffered because of this, and despite my gut instincts we were going the wrong direction, I often felt that I didn't have statistics and the insight to counter some of the more experienced staff or management. This book greatly has changed that as now I can come in armed with info and present better ways to improve our requirements management. I now feel that we'll deliver the right product or system instead of breaking the hearts of our customer and our own team members (because we won't be failing!). The authors also write in a very clear manner and provide excellent examples. I can't believe I am writing this about a requirements book, but I found myself actually _looking forward_ to reading each chapter. I am now confident I have the tools we need to sucessfully manage requirements. Thanks for a great book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good solid reference, January 26, 2009

By 

Jackie M. Bachenberg "theoriginaljfmmb" (Canton, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

This is by no means a page turner, but where I work recently changed their requirements management technique to a RUP model and this book has been a life saver.

It does spend lots of time trying to sell the process and giving you an overview of different types of approaches. I've been in the IT business for over 30 years and I must admit that methodoligies come and go, so I really didn't need the sales job. If I'm still doing this in another 10 years, I'm sure there will be some new, better, greater, methodology that everyone is hot on.

But what it does do is that it walks you through a case study. OK, the study is a little lame, but it's simple enough to use to introduce the concepts and it give examples, good examples. And there are templates. Templates that you can copy and use.

If you find yourself trying to figure out the RUP model, get the book, read it, use it on a small project 1st to get acquainted, and then add the technique to your resume and impress you boss.