Customer Reviews

The Software Requirements Memory Jogger: A Pocket Guide to Help Software And Business Teams Develop And Manage Requirements (Memory Jogger)

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Ellen Gottesdiener's "Software Requirements Memory Jogger" contains an incredible wealth of clearly-presented requirements information in a small-format book. This inch-thick "pocket book" is easy to carry around and browse through when a busy requirements analyst has a few minutes to spare.

Ellen addresses all aspects of the requirements engineering process: elicitation, analysis, specification, validation, and management. Each chapter contains a wealth of practical techniques that can help any software team improve how it deals with requirements. Ellen describes a plethora of requirements "models," ways to represent different types of requirements-related information. Every technique is placed in a context so the reader can learn why to use it, what it does, and how to do it. The book presents scores of practical tips, based on Ellen's vast experience working with actual teams to develop requirements for software products.

This book is a handy guide that no requirements or business analyst should be without.

We have a small boutique consulting group that helps companies be more agile and adaptive and were honored to receive one of the first copies of Software Requirments Memory Jogger. Recently, we sent two of our consultants on the road to help different clients work on gathering requirements and mapping business processes. The normal arguements about who had more air miles quickly switched to who was going to take our copy of Ellen's book with them as a resource. In fact, I'm now in the process of buying a copy for each of the consultants in the firm.

I recommend every Business Analyst, Process Analyst, Quality Assurance Analyst and Project Manager get a copy of this book. It provides the actual techniques that will make your life easier, your processes more documentable and your results more reliable. Buy two; one for you and for one of your most important stakeholders - or if you are like me, buy one for everyone in the office.

David Spann
Managing Partner
Agile Adaptive Management
Park City, UT
801-633-0962
David.Spann@AgileAdaptiveManagement.com

The new Software Requirements Memory Jogger by Ellen Gottesdiener is a must for every business analyst and project manager who deals with requirements management -- and that's probably everyone.

Its compact format makes it a valuable reference to have available for a quick review, and its low cost makes it a good personal tool for every team member involved in requirements activities.

The book is logically organized into the major activities of requirements management: preparation (Ellen calls this 'setting the stage'), elicitation, analysis, specification, validation, and requirements management. Each major activity has a large number of applicable tools that create the appropriate outputs for that activity. Within the elicitation activity there are at least 10 tools, and each one is described in enough detail to provide a perspective for appropriateness in your own project situation. All the activities are detailed in this fashion, and the book also has examples and usage tips.

Ellen's chapter on project types, and considerations for requirements management based on these project types is valuable for project managers and analysts structuring their project plans' tasks related to the requirements phase.

This is a great contribution to the requirements management field, and should be in every project manager's library.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the depth of wisdom and advice Ellen has packed into this Software Requirements Memory Jogger. While this little book can't say everything about software requirements, the breadth of techniques, tips and advice it does contain, are quite astounding. It is process neutral and puts together in one place many different techniques and practices.

It really does cover requirements techniques, practices and principles from A to Z. Chapter 1 provides an Overview of Software Requirements. Chapter 2, Setting the Stage, discusses vision statements, glossaries, and risk mitigation strategies; Chapter 3, Elicit the Requirements, talks about facilitated workshops, exploratory prototypes, focus groups and user task analysis (among other techniques); Analyze the Requirements, Chapter 4, covers everything from Process Maps and Business Rules, to State Diagrams,Use Cases, Personas, and Dialog Maps; Specify the Requirements, Chapter 5, gives nuts and bolts advice on how to structure a req'ts doc and write functional and non-functional req'ts; Validate the Requirements, Chapter 6, explains peer reviews, user acceptance tests,and operational prototypes; Manage the Requirements, Chapter 7, covers change control policies and requirements attributes; and Chapter 8 discusses Adapting Requirements Practices to Project Types.

But wait! The appendices are valuable, too. Thumbing through them I was pleasantly surprised to see an extensive list of Verbs to use for Informative Use Case Names, and verbs to use for performative use cases in Appendix C...as well as a list of 100 ambiguous words and phrases to avoid when describing quality attributes (my favorites are Simple, Rapid,and Intuitive) in Appendix F.

My only quibble with this memory jogger is that I'd like to have had slightly larger (standard book size) format companion available to go into some areas in more depth. Maybe that's Ellen's next book?

Ellen has done a fantastic job of consolidating information from all across the spectrum related to requirements engineering! Facilitation, modeling elicitation, and more. Due to the nature of requirements analysis, business analysts draw from a wide spectrum of skills, methods and sometimes magic when communicating and managing software requirements. At last we have a single source when we need a reminder or jolt for creating amazing requirements.

I just got my copy (so it is still available). There is little I can add to the other reviews, other than support them wholeheartedly.

Writing style is very clear. Coverage is comprehensive. Standardized headers, icons, tables, and lists communicate ideas concisely.

Examples, examples, examples ...

One thing that makes this booklet more valuable than many other requirements texts is the wealth of examples. Everything is illustrated through its own realistic well-chosen example. The examples show you exactly what a particular output (model, diagram, text fragment, table, ...) should look like. Not just abstract, generic advice, but instantiated, concrete stuff to prove that you can actually follow the advice.

This is the first testimonial I've written in my career of over four decades of software systems engineering. Ellen has done it again. Consistent with the PMBOK and SWEBOK, Ellen's new pocket reference guide on software requirements by GoalQPC is a must have in the personal library of anyone connected with successful business software development, including end users. Ellen has a unique ability to distill the mountains of collective knowledge and experience in the field that you will find refreshing and easy to read.

Ed Page, MBA, PMP
Principal Consultant
Page One Group

I bought this because I have and like Gottesdiner's "Requirements by Collaboration." The idea of the "Memory Jogger" was very appealing. That is, my requirement was to have quick access to the essential requirements of the requirements process that I could use as a content and quality sanity check throughout the development project life cycle.

What "Memory Jogger" delivered was a good basic text on the requirements process presented in a virtually unusable format.

The rationale behind the "pocket-sized" format is beyond me. This will not fit into my pocket. I'm already carrying a laptop, a project binder (or two) and probably a flip chart; one more reasonably-sized book isn't going to make much difference in what I'm lugging around. Indeed, its size, shape, and weight guarantee that the "Memory Jogger" will either constantly slip from the stack I'm carrying around or get buried under the stacks on my desk.

The more serious problem with the format is that the type is too small. In attempting to fold a reasonably complete text on requirements into the inappropriate format, the publisher has reduced point size as well as cramped character spacing. In some sections the spacing between words has been reduced to the extent that the text is virtually unreadable.

An additional issue with the small page format is that most sentences are wrapped around multiple lines - one example that I'm looking at right now runs to five lines, making it hard to read and comprehend. Multi-column tables are obviously even worse. Let me emphasize that this is not because the content is verbose or poorly written; it's because of the constraints of the format.

The reviewer who was looking for flip charts or fold-outs is on the right track. I would also suggest that a more extensive use of color would have been useful, say by tipping the pages of each section in a different color. This would be a nice, fast visual indicator - one could flip quickly to the green section or the purple section as one needed.

"However, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, a
confirmed requirements engineer, people seem to find haggling
over requirements a royal pain." Daniel M. Berry.

For me, the pain begins with the first interview. It starts as a dull ache and migrains outward until the last Use Case falls to the floor. Requirements gathering was never high on my list of fun things to do. Offering a range of valuable information for the reader, Ellen Gottesdiener's book offers the aspirin I have long needed.

This small handbook is a highly compressed package of knowledge. The Software Requirements Memory Jogger is full of excellent information for the novice as well as the expert. Gottesdiener gets a grade 'A' for thoughtful preparation and good organization. In the book, you'll get clear summaries and illustrations.

I went to a conference in Florida and attended a workshop held by Ellen Gottesdiener. She's amazing in person and for a Requirements Management nerd like me, inspiring. She reminds you to use common sense and helps "string" it all together - models, specifications, stakeholder charts, etc. When I found out that this book was available, we ordered it for all our Business Analysts as a quick guide/reference. I use mine to help mentor other Analysts on a daily basis. I recommend this memory jogger if you are accountable for producing requirements and need a refresher or this is your first time. Very helpful and easy to read for all level of Analysts.