Customer Reviews

A Requirements Pattern: Succeeding in the Internet Economy

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When trying to understand what information architectures are all about, this is the only book I have come across that answered all of my questions and placed the field in context with modern technologies. Unfortunately, most books on information architectures fall into two categories that miss the mark:

1. There are books written by IA experts before the internet, and the terms and viewpoint used require considerable on-the-fly translations to modern technologies.

2. There are books written by IT experts who couldn't spot an IA if it bit them on the leg. These books are fat with useless lists of IT technologies and acronyms.

Fredinandi's book is worth reading cover-to-cover, and more than once.

Ms Ferdinandi does an excellent job exploring the unique process of gathering requirements for web-based development projects. When your business partner is operating on "Internet time" it's easy to take shortcuts that can have disastrous consequences later. This book provides a methodology that ensures you can deliver systems quickly while not neglecting important aspects of the requirements gathering and management process. Covers initial project requirements as well as enhancement requirements. Highly recommended.

Validating requirements is a tough job especially for someone like me that is not intimately involved in the project. I'm called in to review requirements for quality. Sure, I can use the checklist that appears in so many requirement type books. This is the FIRST book that talks about looking at all the requirements and checking to see if you have any gaps in knowledge. The way the author categorizes requirements, it is easy to follow and so simple to implement in any size organization for any type of project. I will be able to help the team way before design begins. The cross-checking techniques will save me time and the company money.

Through the years, I have continually learned and implemented new approaches to developing information technology products. All of these approaches were helpful, but none perfect in capturing all that is needed to build a quality system.

When John Zachman introduced his Information System Framework, it provided the beginning of a framework that would help me to cross-check that I've captured all the details needed to build an effective and efficient software system.

The Requirements Set Framework I've developed expands Zachman's work to incorporate System Requirements (non-functional requirements) and other Business Practice Requirements that are so notoriously forgotten until much later in stages of development. Plus this approach works with all current system development methods and techniques.

The book describes, in detail, the type of requirements that need to be captured, how to categorize them, how to evolve them for designers, and how to manage them throughout the product's life. The book can be used as training tool for beginners, or as a cross-check tool for senior systems engineers, or anyone responsible for capturing, analyzing, specifying, and validating requirements.

As a result of reading this book, you will have learned the steps to ensure the following:
-There are no glaring gaps in knowledge.
-All dependencies between requirements have been defined.
-All relationship between requirements have been qualified.
-All requirement details are captured.

The book also discusses The Requirements Pattern and the associated Anti-Patterns in great detail. The use of patterns and anti-patterns have become widely accepted in the system engineering community and assists project teams in avoiding the typical mishaps of a requirement effort.

I hope you are able to use my book as a reference for years to come,as new approaches to software development emerge, or with any individual or mix of existing approaches to product development.

This is an excellent book that educates readers on all the different type of requirements that have to be uncovered. The way the author categorizes requirements is easy to use and understand. I especially like her approach to community. I have been involved with many web-based systems. So many times people tend to forget the impact software requirements have on the business and visa versa. P. Ferdinandi is the first IT related book that recognizes that requirements go beyond
software!

"I'm new to the requirement process. I found this book very useful in explaining the process and the best way to organize all the requirements. However, the book is worth its weight in gold because of the appendices. Specifically, Appendix B that provides a well thought out list of questions that should be asked of the users for the Internet system. I'm also going to try this on my next non-Internet project as I can see how it will be valuable for any type of project."

Most requirement related books are tied to a specific method. This book is not! Ms. Ferdinandi talks about what needs to be captured to build a system. Therefore, it works with any method. This is an excellent book for us eXtreme Programmer types that are responsible for requirements, design and coding! The book provides a great checklist of questions to ask the users reducing the need to recode later.

Ferdinandi does an excellent job of providing us with the recipe for success, not only in web-development projects, but for other applications as well. The presentation and delivery of the requirements process is professional, thorough and easy to follow. The examples were detailed and appropriate. I highly recommend it to anyone developing projects, applications or web presences that must succeed.

After reading this book over the holiday, I decided to give it a try on my new project. I applied the authors categories to business plans I needed to prepare. I have to admit that her approach made an improvement that even impressed my managers. Her questions in the appendix were also extremely useful in helping me think of more needs than I had originally thought were important. Her chapter on the parts of a requirement helped me supply the details that I would have omitted previously. Bottom line, the author makes you think allowing for better definition of product needs.

This is the first book about Requirements Pattern. You can easily understanding your problems after define all project's requirements. This book also provides a completes framework to categorizes and organizes the different types of requirements, forming a requirements set. It makes our project done on time and within budget. Thanks to Pat for this excellent book.