Customer Reviews

Telling Stories: A Short Path to Writing Better Software Requirements

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"Telling Stories" offers the simple truth that people learn best through storytelling and that the best software requirements are plotted with this in mind. Having spent a good many years as a student, teacher, and technology writer myself, I appreciate a book that gets to the heart of communication and in the process makes me smile.

Ben Rinzler is a great storyteller and his funny insights into the workings of the workplace, with all its communication challenges, ring true. There is a lot of material here, including a surprisingly broad survey of different informing disciplines (the work of Joe Williams is referenced, for example). Despite the quantity of material covered, it never feels like a plod and has lots of good visuals and examples all the way through.

"Telling Stories" continues to be a good "go to" reference and it now lives on my desk at work, right between the computer and Strunk and White.

You don't see everyday a brand new book on requirements, so this one caught my eye. First thing I noticed is the price: $40. In my hands, judging from the thickness of the paperback, it felt I was holding a short handbook of style. There are some good thoughts in this book: examples of ambiguous and weak writing, and how to changed them to make them more active and measurable. There is a chapter on charts and how to improve them, by showing some chart nodes that seem to be mixing a state (static) with a process (action) and suggestions on how to improve what the chart maker is trying to communicate to the reader. One small item that i found a bit disappointing is that the words used in the language of defining requirements, such as SHALL, WILL, MAY was in a small paragraph towards the end. It's a good book to improve how to convey information in a more forceful and communicative way, but if you can get someone else to buy it, since those 140 pages are worth their weight in gold.

A month into a new job, I was given two weeks to gather and write business requirements for software, something I'd never done before. Thank God for Telling Stories, which was clear, witty, and above all instructive. I followed Ben Rinzler's step-by-step instructions and produced a document that made the clients happy. If you are new to requirements or need a refresher, this book is a lifesaver!

I found this book appeals to both the expert user and the novice. It helped refresh my knowledge of gathering and writing business requirements I have not used in a while. The novice user is given clear and concise examples on how to document business processes. I would recommend it particularly for new technical writers or those looking to expand their technical writing reference library, or anyone who want to gain an understanding of the business requirements process.

Frankly, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. I expected to learn about writing requirements, using data flow diagrams and explaining processes - and I did. But I also enjoyed the book's straight-forward explanations and advice. Rinzler practices what he preaches. The book uses stories to teach how to use stories. It uses clear, concise language to teach the reader to do the same. I have used the lessons from this book to write better requirements and to explain other complexities, such as a complex real estate transaction. "Just tell the story clearly and concisely" I remind myself - and it works!

There are so many people mesmerized by the technical aspects and possibilities of UML descriptions that are not capable to see why the customers do not understand/want it, and the risks associated with this gap of understanding. This book is an oasis in the desert, reasserting what I learned by practice: to write good requirements, a good text and some well crafted diagrams worths dozens of obscure (from customer point of view) UML stuff .