Without formal, verifiable software requirements—and an effective system for managing them—the programs that developers think they’ve agreed to build often will not be the same products their customers are expecting. In SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS, Second Edition, requirements engineering authority Karl Wiegers amplifies the best practices presented in his original award-winning text?now a mainstay for anyone participating in the software development process.

In this book, you’ll discover effective techniques for managing the requirements engineering process all the way through the development cycle—including dozens of techniques to facilitate that all-important communication between users, developers, and management. This updated edition features new case examples, anecdotes culled from the author’s extensive consulting career, and specific Next Steps for putting the book’s process-improvement principles into practice. You’ll also find several new chapters, sample documents, and an incisive troubleshooting guide.

Discover how to:

Set achievable expectations for functionality and quality NEW: Incorporate business rules into application development Employ use cases to discover user requirements Arrest creeping requirements and manage change requests NEW: Deal with requirements on maintenance, outsourced, and package solution projects Curb the impulse to “gold-plate” your programs NEW: Grow effective requirements analysts Cut revisions—and costs—dramatically Produce better software!

No matter what kind of software you build, or what your role in the development process, SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS, Second Edition, delivers expert guidance and field-tested techniques for engineering software