Requirements Engineering and Rapid Development: An object-oriented approach [Hardcover]

Ian Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 1999

The message of this book is simple. Software development should be done quickly and effectively. Systems that take years to develop can often end up out of synch. with their users' evolving requirements and business objectives by the time they are delivered. Requirements Engineering and Rapid Development shows how to solve the problem by using a systematic approach to requirements gathering and business modelling. This book is packed full of practical advice and tried and tested techniques for object modelling, illustrating how these techniques may be applied not only to models of computer systems, but to models of the world in which they have to operate. Ian Graham provides advice on how to run requirements workshops and presents a standard structure for requirements gathering, modelling and analysis, founded on an understanding of the project's mission and business objectives. Using a sequence of traceable, linked object models the final implementation may be continually checked against the specifications to ensure developers do not lose sight of the original goals. Anyone involved in the specification of modern computer systems should read this book. The approach taken in this book incorporates the OPEN rapid application development process and complies with the principles of DSDM.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The message of this book is simple. Software development should be done quickly and effectively. Systems that take years to develop can often end up out of synch. with their usersi evolving requirements and business objectives by the time they are delivered. Requirements Engineering and Rapid Development shows how to solve the problem by using a systematic approach to requirements gathering and business modelling.

This book is packed full of practical advice and tried and tested techniques for object modelling, illustrating how these techniques may be applied not only to models of computer systems, but to models of the world in which they have to operate. Ian Graham provides advice on how to run requirements workshops and presents a standard structure for requirements gathering, modelling and analysis, founded on an understanding of the projectis mission and business objectives. Using a sequence of traceable, linked object models the final implementation may be continually checked against the specifications to ensure developers do not lose sight of the original goals.

Anyone involved in the specification of modern computer systems should read this book.

The approach taken in this book incorporates the OPEN rapid application development process and complies with the principles of DSDM.

Key Features

Requirements Engineering and Rapid Development provides integrated coverage of:

• rigorous object modelling
• object-oriented rapid application development
• business process modelling and requirements engineering
• intelligent agents
• provably correct requirements capture
• organizing and running workshops
• animating models

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About the Author

Ian Graham is an industry consultant with over 20 years experience, and has been a practitioner in IT for over 25. He is internationally recognized as an authority on business modeling, object-oriented software development methods, software development processes, and expert systems. Ian is currently Principal Consultant with TriReme International Ltd. Previously he spent six years in senior management positions with Chase Manhattan Bank and the Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS Warburg). Ian is well known as a public speaker and writer on advanced computing and has published over 60 articles and papers. He is the author or editor of 13 books on the subject and has lectured in 16 countries across 4 continents.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (June 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201360470
• ISBN-13: 978-0201360479
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,719,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Does not live up to its promise, March 29, 2005

By 

JSG (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Requirements Engineering and Rapid Development: An object-oriented approach (Hardcover)

In short, I found this book of little or no value. Mr Graham opens with a brief description and history of O-O modeling and systems, and the benefits (and the pitfalls) they can bring. This section is relatively decent reference material, but is tainted with the author's unending litany of criticisms about earlier approaches and systems; he rarely seems to have words of praise for any system other than what he uses and promotes (SOMATiK, based on the SOMA Modeling Language). Next, the author talks in a fairly vague and pedantic manner about applying O-O concepts to improve the quality and speed of requirements engineering. Once you've read this, you expect a strong presentation of a breakthrough way of doing requirements engineering development. However, the remainder of the book is short and anti-climactic, and hardly corroborates his claims for the benefits of O-O in requirements engineering and development. Finally, Mr Graham includes some theoretical material, e.g. on requirements provability, in appendixes, perhaps to show off his mathematical prowess.

I'm not in a position to dispute the author's credentials, or his claims of having developed some excellent real-world systems. It's just that Mr Graham fails to make his case, and, along the way, does not teach us much about how to actually perform requirements engineering in the real world. I also have my doubts as to whether the SOMATiK system that he over-promotes has much currency (see http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=SOMATiK, which defines the term as "An earlier CASE tool from the former Bezant Ltd., Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, that was known for its acceptance of specifications in text form ..."). Finally, if this were not enough, the author's criticisms of other people's work are both unprofessional and tedious.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great remarks on oo-requirements analysis and -modeling, October 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Requirements Engineering and Rapid Development: An object-oriented approach (Hardcover)

Graham give a good insight into the pitfalls and problems in requirements engineering with object-oriented technology. Espacially interesting are the remarks and advices the author gives regarding commonly used oo-techniques such as use cases. With Semantic Object Modelling Approach (SOMA) a method for modelling is introduced, which focusses on seaminglessness between the different models. SOMA blends also into the Object-oriented Process Environment and Notation (OPEN).