Customer Reviews

Practical Software Requirements: A Manual of Content and Style

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Kovitz's book is one of the best works I've ever seen on writing software requirements.

Most books focus on a method of analysis (usually one that translates neatly into a software development methodology) but can be totally incomprehensible to the poor end-user who is supposed to understand and approve the project. I've seen a number of attempts to remedy this: the most promising was to create the user manual as the first step in the requirements process. Tempting, but there are dozens of decisions in most business applications that need to be exposed up front but don't belong in user documentation--error messages, to give just one example.

Kovitz takes a different approach: he focuses on what needs to actually be in the text of a requirements document to make it effectively understood by both developers and end users. This is, as the subtitle makes clear, a manual of content and style. The focus of the book is how to present the results of your analysis rather than on how to conduct the analysis itself. As a result, this book contains useful advice whether you use SA/SD or the latest object-oriented methodology.

The first third of the book is devoted to determining the scope of the problem to be solved. Kovitz's approach is heavily influenced by Michael Jackson's Software Requirements and Specifications--another book I loved but sometimes found difficult to make practical use of. Jackson devotes a fair amount of his book to the topic of framing problems and how to fit your method to the problem, rather than distorting the problem to fit the method. Kovitz takes this a step further by describing in detail five common types of problems solved by software systems, outlines the different information required to solve each kind of problem, and shows how multiple kinds of problems can be solved in the same information system.

The next section details means of describing the information contained in a system, event sequences, and causation and control patterns.

The book finishes up with a section on wirting style and sample requirements and specification documents so you can actually see his advice in use. The documents come from a real program and not some toy problem--and they're a lot clearer than anything I've read at work.

It takes a lot of effort to write clearly, and where requirements and specifications are concerned, it's perhaps vital to the success of the project. Understanding and applying the advice of this book can probably do more for you than attempting to apply the latest lifecycle methodology.

Of course, I always have been a sucker for good books on writing, and I guess that this gushing shows it, but still...

Wow! The more years I spend in software, the more I am convinced that requirements documents are consistently weak. Reading this book will help. Good advice. Strong theoretical justification. Great, real-world examples. Don't do software without it.

This is a great book for anyone whose job includes:
* Business Analysis (for software)
* Application Programming
* Technical Writing

The book is about techniques for describing a problem to be solved by a piece of software without describing the design of software components. In other words, providing the information that the software designer needs at the correct level of detail, without trying to specify a software design.

Designing software involves joining informal, real-world problems to the formal world of computers. In the real world problems are messy, vague, and unbounded. Unfortunately, computers only solve problems that are well-defined, unambiguous and well-bounded. Requirements writing is the art of reducing a messy-real world problem to a neat, well-defined, unambiguous description which can be used to drive development of a computerized solution.

This is one of the first books to effectively bridge that gap. I say "effectively", because it is certainly not the first try--every software methodology has techniques for capturing requirements. However, the methodologies hopelessly intertwine requirements gathering with system interface specification and even system design. This inevitably results in requirements being given short-shrift.

Many of the techniques this book teaches are equally applicable to creating documentation for existing software. Every technical writer should learn to create models of the problem their software solves and then explain software functions using only the terms defined within the model.

I highly recommend this book. However, I do know some people who did not like it. If you find it disappointing, I suggest that you try practicing with one or two techniques, then give it another read. The ideas are often more subtle than they appear at first glance. Expect that you may need months to really absorb its advice.

I enjoyed this book and got a lot from it, Kovitz focuses not on a standard "join the dots" methodology but rather on outlining an overall approach followed by good detailed advice on possible analysis/documentation techniques and how to write clear, concise requirements. Hence I would say that its best for the experienced analyst who is already familiar with the concepts and various techniques described in section 2 and knows when to use/ when not to use them. He is truthful in what he says about needing to adapt requirements style and content to what the situation needs but in some development shops you would need to be an senior analyst to be able to vary from their standards. I would recommend it for any analyst with 2+ years experience who wants to improve and polish their ability to write requirements/specifications

I would recommend this book for everybody, who is involved in sw product creation. It is so CLEARLY and engagingly written, that any reader (student, business manager, programmer...) can take advantage of information. There is no 'water' in this book. You will read and almost on every page you can make a discovery: 'A-a-a... That's how we document it!' It will make clear for many people the grey area between the conception of software idea and actual sw design. Unfortunately, in (almost) all design books the technique of documenting 'what is to be done' is glossed over.

Writing requirements as a product manager has always been a black art to me. It's not impossible but it normally involves a lot of fudging and reading it always make me feel that there's something missing. I often end up putting specifications inside the requirements document. How do I make it complete without ending up writing the specifications itself?

Kovitz's <em>Practical Software Requirements</em> provides a clear and concise guide to writing requirements by looking at the problem of developing software. By examining how we frame a problem and its domains, the book explains how the reader can extract elements of the requirements and specifications documents and present them in a concise manner.

Throughout the book, he proposes how its content can be written and provides clear examples. His approach is direct and concise, and he teaches the reader how to write without any hint of legalese that permeate traditional corporate requirements documents. His examples are practical and he addresses common mistakes that writers make.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and it has been an invaluable tool in helping me write better requirements and specifications at work.

CS and MIS majors should not be allowed to graduate without studying this text. Far too many projects have unnecessarily gone off course because of poorly doucumented and misunderstood requirements.

Very inspiring book on what software requirements are about. What always seemed to be dull, became very much alive. Practical guidelines, stuff to think about in the 'problem frames'. Nice example of requirements and specification doc. Missing: elicitation - how to get information from the customer about his/her requirements.

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this tells you all you need to know about requirements.

indeed, it tells a lot more than that because it explains things not just state them.

it kills some urban legends and myths about requirements that everyone should know but most people do not. but then most people do not know what they don't know. scare your phb, impress your colleagues with your wisdom after reading this book.

if you work with requirements, software, systems engineering, and especially systems architecture you need to read this book. even if you have read others and or think you know all about requirements you can still learn things that you didn't know or why what you thought was true actually is.

this book would work symbiotically with the art of systems architecture by rechtin and maier. read them both.

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Deep and unique - I feel I've really come to understand what a requirement is and how to communicate it to non-technical people. The reader, however, will have to be familiar with the concepts and terminology of software engineering or will miss some of the theoretical points. The only drawback for me, was the concentration on Jackson's approach. While the book ties the subject matter well to methodological components, I would suggest getting your methodology education elsewhere. Skip the theoretical "why", chapter 12 and beyond (Part III on style) is where the value of the book lies and justifies the cost.