Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques (Worldwide Series in Computer Science) [Hardcover]

Gerald Kotonya (Author), Ian Sommerville (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471972088 | ISBN-13: 978-0471972082 | Publication Date: August 25, 1998 | Edition: 1

Requirements Engineering Processes and Techniques Why this book was written The value of introducing requirements engineering to trainee software engineers is to equip them for the real world of software and systems development. What is involved in Requirements Engineering? As a discipline, newly emerging from software engineering, there are a range of views on where requirements engineering starts and finishes and what it should encompass. This book offers the most comprehensive coverage of the requirements engineering process to date - from initial requirements elicitation through to requirements validation. How and Which methods and techniques should you use? As there is no one catch-all technique applicable to all types of system, requirements engineers need to know about a range of different techniques. Tried and tested techniques such as data-flow and object-oriented models are covered as well as some promising new ones. They are all based on real systems descriptions to demonstrate the applicability of the approach. Who should read it? Principally written for senior undergraduate and graduate students studying computer science, software engineering or systems engineering, this text will also be helpful for those in industry new to requirements engineering. Accompanying Website: http: //www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/resources/re Visit our Website: http://www.wiley.com/college/wws

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Requirements Engineering Processes and Techniques Why this book was written The value of introducing requirements engineering to trainee software engineers is to equip them for the real world of software and systems development. What is involved in Requirements Engineering? As a discipline, newly emerging from software engineering, there are a range of views on where requirements engineering starts and finishes and what it should encompass. This book offers the most comprehensive coverage of the requirements engineering process to date - from initial requirements elicitation through to requirements validation. How and Which methods and techniques should you use? As there is no one catch-all technique applicable to all types of system, requirements engineers need to know about a range of different techniques. Tried and tested techniques such as data-flow and object-oriented models are covered as well as some promising new ones. They are all based on real systems descriptions to demonstrate the applicability of the approach. Who should read it? Principally written for senior undergraduate and graduate students studying computer science, software engineering or systems engineering, this text will also be helpful for those in industry new to requirements engineering. Accompanying Website: http: //www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/resources/re Visit our Website: http://www.wiley.com/college/wws

Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471972088
• ISBN-13: 978-0471972082
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to requirements engineering, April 24, 2001

By 

Linda Zarate "IT Ops Consultant" (Azusa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques (Worldwide Series in Computer Science) (Hardcover)

This book is broken down into requirements processes and techniques, which makes an ideal reference for companies that are implementing requirements engineering, for consultants who are developing and implementing requirements processes and procedures for clients, and for individuals who are seeking to improve their professional skills.

I like the way this book starts with a frequently asked questions (FAQ) about requirements. In my experience requirements and the processes and techniques that are associated with eliciting and analyzing them are not clearly understood. Too often requirements spill into design, and this part of the book will show you what a requirement is and what it is not.

The requirements process models covered in this book are complete, and serve as a complete life cycle of a requirement from elicitation to analysis, validation and management. Some strong points about this approach include the need to test requirements, as well as to manage changes as they are refined. Moreover, the authors' approach to constantly assuring traceability is a mature practice and the key, in my opinion, to effective requirements management.

Part two of this book covers the requirements engineering techniques that are the "moving parts" of the processes. Some are outdated or cumbersome, such as Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT), while others are interesting, such as Viewpoint-oriented System Engineering (VOSE). Some highlights of this part of the book include: definition of non-functional requirements (another grossly misunderstood aspect of requirements management), interactive system specification approaches and transitioning to object-oriented design. I also found the case study at the end of the book both useful and interesting.

I think this book is an excellent starting point for understanding requirements engineering. It covers a wide range of methods and does not advocate any particular methodology, which makes it valuable for generalists who do not want to lock themselves into a single way of managing requirements. The processes provided are excellent and complete. I recommend this as a first book on requirements engineering because of its unbiased and straightforward treatment of this discipline.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Miserably poor editing; mind-numbing content, June 2, 2004

By 

M. Weber "miweber" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques (Worldwide Series in Computer Science) (Hardcover)

Wiley should be ashamed to publish this book; every page shocks me with careless grammar errors and convoluted logic. Tonight's bombs included "This are stable features of the system" (page 116) and "Surprisingly, Davis does not mention what we consider to be the most important traceability information namely information which records the dependencies between the requirements themselves" (page 129). The diagrams are extremely simplified, usually a handful of boxes with arrows, some labeled, some not. The print looks as if it had been delivered as "camera-ready" out of an aging departmental laser printer; entire lines are skewed to italic, and the grey backgrounds behind "key points" and other focus boxes are very dark with distracting vertical stripes. Getting useful information out of this book is very challenging, as I have been constantly tripping over run-on sentences, oddly phrased summaries, and incorrect assertions about the state of technology as it applies to the practice. If you can find ANY other book that may suit your needs, get it instead of this one. It's offensive to have to pay so much for a book that doesn't even meet high-school standards for composition. If it weren't required for a class, I'd be trying to get a refund right now. You can bet I'll be selling this paperweight at the first opportunity.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly Written Book, November 4, 2006

By 

Jonathan J. Carr "J Carr" (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques (Worldwide Series in Computer Science) (Hardcover)

This book should not be the primary text used for a Systems Engineering course, yet it was. I read several reviews that stated this book had errors. Indeed the author must not have proof read his text. It is poorly written with so many spelling and grammar errors you have to wonder how accurate the information in the text is. Additionally I have noticed that the author has half-facts or contradictory statements. If you are forced to purchase this book for a class, sorry to hear about that. If you have an option to not buy this book, don't.