Software Requirements: Styles and Techniques

By Soren Lauesen

Book Overview

Most IT systems fail to meet expectations. They don't meet business goals and don't support users efficiently. Why? Because the requirements didn't address the right issues. Writing a good requirements specification doesn't take more time. This book shows how it is done - many times faster and many times smarter. This book covers many aspects of requirements. Styles: Traditional and more cost/effective ways of expressing requirements. Techniques: Ways of gathering, verifying, and maintaining requirements; ways of getting commitment from the stakeholders and support - yet limit - innovation; ways of ensuring that you meet your business goals. It discusses the styles and techniques useful for different project types, for instance software developed specifically for the customer, software bought off-the shelf and adapted for the customer (COTS), and software developed for a broad market. The book illustrates everything through real-life examples. It also deals with difficult requirements, for instance how to specify ease-of-use, how to specify very complex computations, and how to deal with 200 reports that the old system has, and the new system may or may not need. The book shows two complete, real-life specifications and large parts of several others. It also has exercises and figures for presentation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201745704
• ISBN13: 9780201745702
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Best book on SW requirements

"Software requirements - styles and techniques" is best book I have ever read on SW requirements. I fully recommend it to anyone involved in requirements analysis. Not a "theoretical" book but one with great practical information. It has also fulll examples of requirement specs! I invite anyone interested in taking look at slides that are available in author's website. They give you an good overview on books value. When I saw these slides and "Task & Support" requirements style I just had to buy this book. I am not involved in any way with the author. I just want to give this good review because I feel the book can FINALLY shed light on requirements analysis with CONCRETE examples of requirements and not just some academic theories.

A very good book on requierements

Many books I read talk about requirement analysis living the previuos steps (exlicitation and documentation) to the reader.This books presents, in a very pleasant way, the different forms we have to describe requirements in a SOW or a SRS.It compares differents style and gives very good advices.A must to have.

Excellent material

If you've ever worked/will work with getting requirements in a software project, you can't go wrong with this book. Taking you first through the basics, Lauesen then goes on to discuss the different techniques of specifying requirements under different conditions. Man, this is gonna save your bacon one of these days... :)

Original book,! Distinctive approach for requirements.

Very original book; a rich source of knowledge and reflection. The approach is quite distinctive; it combines industrial and academic experience. We feel from the examples presented in the book and their conceptualisation that the author went through a long and painful (but fruitful) learning process of requirements engineering.The author presents various techniques and models, and he stresses that there is no RIGHT model for all situations. He also discusses practical issues/problems, with a balance between pragmatism and perfection. The book discusses the types of projects, contracts and appropriate requirement elicitation/engineering techniques to be considered.One of the rare books, that discuss seriously Quality Requirements, not from the surface and not just by listing them from standards, but in details with practical examples, especially usability.I highly recommend this book for anyone who deals with requirements! Practitioners, students and teachers.