Overlooked or poorly defined nonfunctional software requirements are widely recognized to be among the most expensive and difficult errors to correct after a softward system has been implemented. This book presents over 2,000 suggested questions to help master the elicitation of these hard-to-identify, yet vital, requirements. Its proven step-by-step techniques, insightful tips and tools, easy-to-use checklists, examples of nonfunctional requirements, and requirements-gathering questions, will assist the reader in developing and installing software requirements.
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But what should I really ask? a business analysis might reasonably wonder, even after learning techniques for eliciting requirements. Roxanne Miller's book is the first to answer that question - more than 2,000 times. Her numerous specific suggestions for what to ask on key recurring nonfunctional topics, plus hard-won wisdom and tips, are sure to enable every reader to conduct more effective user interviews. --Stephen Withall, author of Software Requierment Patterns
About the Author
Roxanne E. Miller, Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), is a leader in the business analysis community and frequent speaker at industry events. She founded and serves as president of the Greater Madison Wisconsin USA Chapter of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). As president and lead instructor of Requirements Quest, Roxanne delivers world-class business analysis training and consults on software requirements process improvement.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Quest for Software Requirements (Paperback),
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This review is from: The Quest for Software Requirements (Paperback)
The 'Quest for Software Requirements' is all those things mentioned in the 2 previous reviews. But I would like to highlight the deep and excellent treatement of Stakeholders. It is extensive, insightful, and the best treatment of stakeholders I have seen in a book. We need, as a software profession, to move from the narrow concepts of requirements for users and customers, to the broader and all inclusive notion of the system stakeholders, their values and needs - leading to a less risky set of requirements, and to priority information about those stakeholder requirements.
Of course I am delighted at the extensive treatment of quality requirements, as too many books gloss over the subject - like most software developers, and the Agile culture in particular does. The incredibly detailed list of questions on all manner of subjects leaves me in two minds. They are really quite good questions. But I cannot see developers actually asking them and answering them for each project. But as a source for sampling and probing, for auditing a project I can see more use. I can also see their use in teaching students the kinds of things to look out for. A teacher student dialogue could be used to bring out why the question and its answer might be useful. I would recommend this book as a requirements study textbook, to help nurture the new breed of software engineers to can think maturely about stakeholders and quality.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful,
This review is from: The Quest for Software Requirements (Paperback)
In an age when many technical books provide little more than cheerleading for one technique or another, it is refreshing to come across a book that is genuinely useful. The subtitle of Roxanne Miller's book gives us the clue as to what this book is about: "Probing questions to bring nonfunctional requirements into focus".
The book has two parts, which I will explain to show you why I think this is useful. In the first part Ms. Miller takes us through an introductory piece on requirements. She is not attempting to make this an exhaustive treatise on gathering requirements. Instead, its purpose is to bring readers up to speed and preparing them to mine the value of part two. In the second part of the book (I cannot call it the second half because it occupies most of the book), Ms. Miller provides us with an extensive list of nonfunctional requirements. Then comes the value: for each of the non-functional types she provides an expansive list of questions that the business analyst would do well to ask. This is not merely a checklist for the business analyst to tick off as he or she works through the pages. Instead, it provides questions that challenge the business analyst, and the stakeholders, to consider seriously the particular nonfunctional requirement type being dealt with at the moment. Nonfunctional requirements are a major contributor to successful projects and products, and bewilderingly, are often ignored by development teams. Ignoring the nonfunctional requirements, or leaving them to the goodwill of the developers, almost always results in substandard products that are rejected by the users. Agile development teams are well advised to take note of this book--user stories are usually about functions or features. There is growing evidence that agile teams are not adequately discovering the appropriate nonfunctional requirements. Even a cursory reading of Ms. Miller's book reveals many requirements that could easily be missed by the user story writers. I think that the best recommendation I can give this book is to say that I shall give a copy to the project on my consulting assignments. I know it is going to have a beneficial impact. James Robertson, author Mastering the Requirements Process and Requirements-Led Project Management, London, April 2011
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful treatment of nonfunctional requirements--an essential but oft missed need,
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This review is from: The Quest for Software Requirements (Paperback)
The Quest for Software Requirements brings the difficult and oft neglected topic of nonfunctional requirements to the forefront. After an excellent treatment of analyzing the 'who' (stakeholders), Roxanne's book dives deep into the details of nonfunctional requirements, supplying useful categories, examples, and question sets. Analysts, developers, testers, and network engineers alike will benefit by reading and referencing Roxanne's thorough resource.
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