Reviewer Comments on Software Requirements, 3rd Edition
This new edition, much enlarged (to over 600 pages) and extensively revised, improves on an already thorough and
useful book.... Although there is 'software' in this book's title, much of the advice applies equally to systems
of all kinds, and indeed there is a chapter on embedded and real-time systems - the guidelines apply to system
hardware as well as software.... Overall, this is a well thought out textbook, firmly rooted in industrial
experience. As such it will be useful not only to people in industry, as stated on the book's cover, but to students
and university lecturers in software engineering and related disciplines who need a solid overview of industrial best
practice. For people in industry, it represents exceptionally good value with its wide coverage of requirements
topics. Highly recommended.
— Ian Alexander (read full review)
The book has been refined over several editions and has impressive breadth of
coverage and detail. It includes numerous examples, tools, techniques and templates
and it is difficult to point out lacking or missing areas. At most, one can tell that the book
is too comprehensive to digest in one pass and requires the reader to come back to reread
or consult. However, it is quite concise, given the complexity of the topic and
without sacrificing coverage and completeness.
Being an encyclopedia of everything related to software requirements, this book can
serve as a reference for the experienced practitioner or as an in-depth tutorial for a
beginner. It can and should be used as a future refresher and reference -- as a
"checklist" in support of planning projects or as an expert companion in difficult times
during a project.
The book is authoritative by its impressive coverage and detail. It is a practical, reliable
and thorough reference on software requirements, a must-read for all project stakeholders.
— Marta Soncodi, latticera.com
The text is written in a clearly, easily understandable style so that even readers who are starting out in the
software development field and are writing requirements will not become frustrated or confused. This book is a
user-friendly guide that helps readers in every step of the software requirements creation process.
The writing is clear and concise—provides enough information for someone developing software requirements to
understand the process of creating software requirements documents.
A lot of information is covered in this book, but the authors handled it well. They included enough essential
information to help readers understand what they need to do to create effective, high-quality software requirements.
Ample examples and tips and tricks to help readers avoid pitfalls along the way. This book serves as an excellent
guide.
Overall, this is an excellent reference for anyone creating software requirements. Readers at any level of experience
would find this book to be a handy, useful guide that they would refer to over and over when they are working on
developing software requirements. Although there's a lot of information covered in this book, the authors have
managed to include just enough information in a friendly tone so that readers don't feel overwhelmed.
— Judges from the Society for Technical Communication
Some particularly likeable things:
- Each new topic begins with a realistic and often contentious conversation between two or more principals on a relevant project. It’s a comfortable way to be introduced to a topic.
- The book focuses not just on relevant conversations, but relevant projects / case studies. It has a feeling of realism.
- It feels astonishingly thorough. Here are just some of the topics it covers: use cases, business rules, requirements specifications (note: that is not your standard Computer Science formal specs discussion), representation techniques, quality requirements, prototyping, prioritizing, validation, requirements reuse (that’s a fascinating concept all by itself!), and requirements management.
- It presents a bill of rights, and a bill of responsibilities, for the customers that requirements analysts deal with.
- It provides/describes a list of 50 requirements engineering good practices, and imbeds them in a process framework within which they can be applied.
- It discusses approaches that can be used for six different kinds of projects: agile, enhancement, packaged, outsourced, business process automation, business analytics, and embedded real-time (that’s quite a comprehensive spectrum of possible projects!).
This book says it is focused on "principles that work in practice," and I am happy to say that I believe it has accomplished precisely that.
— Robert L. Glass
The third edition is informative and because they build powerful illustrated instructional arguments, the authors make it easy to understand and retain the concepts and methodologies presented. Additionally, I like their conversational literary style. I feel as if the authors are addressing me personally. The text is well indexed
and I particularly like how the authors reference associated concepts and definitions between chapters.
— Virginia Benedict
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