My favorite book on the art of requirements gathering

books:


	• Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design Donald C. Gause, Gerald M. Weinberg Dorset House Publishing Company, Incorporated, 1989 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Timeless book

I believe I first read this book in the mid-1990's when I was working as a product manager for a software application. You will not find a better book to start your journey about understanding requirements. It is a great foundational book before you dive into sophisticated methods like Quality Functional Deployment (QFD). It was an amazing book to read at the time. I just picked up the book today to read a few sections. It's still a great read, it is timeless.

Premier Book on Requirements Exploration

Note the distinction, this is not about Requirements Management, but understanding how to generate and explore requirements for goodness. I love Weinberg because he always makes you think. He takes an unconventional approach and I have never yet read a book of his where I didn't come away with an epiphany, and a completely different understanding of the fundamental problems. Sections 9.2 and 9.4 are classic and worth the price of the book! If you read these and still can't understand why the requirements problem is Hard, change profession.

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A "must read" book for anyone who designs systems

In a world where there is strong emphasis on project management skills and design skills, this is a welcome book that emphasizes that requirements must come first. The process of defining requirements is vital to success and, with good requirements, quality is assured. I recommend this book to anyone who works on solving problems or in building systems of any kind. Gause and Weinberg are excellent in presenting complex concepts in an entertaining and informative way.

There is a human tendency to want to rush into solutions as soon as an opportunity surfaces. And... the result is usually not what was needed. Then, there is a rush to "add quality" to the result by fixing the flaws. This is costly and often fatal to the project. This book takes the reader down a different road. A road of first defining the objective that is to be attained and being sure that all parties understand and agree to the requirements. If you only have a few books in your business library, this should be one of them. I shared my copy with so many colleagues that I finally had to buy another copy.

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My favorite book on the art of requirements gathering

"The document is nothing; the documenting is everything."

This quote encompasses the most important concept I learned from this terrific book on the art of gathering requirements. Most customers seem to focus exclusively on the size and quality of the requirements document itself. What Gause & Weinberg are saying here is that the process of developing the requirements and the building of a strong project team should be the primary goals. The document itself is secondary.

I've read this book at least three times and I'm constantly finding new ideas and tips that I missed in previous readings. The book is now covered almost top to bottom in highlights and peppered with little sticky note bookmarks. I've also skimmed it before the start of a project and I found the list of Helpful Hints at the end of every chapter to be quite useful.

A sample product development project is skillfully integrated into the book and helps to tie together the many recommendations and process advice presented. I've impressed many a client with my customized process for requirements gathering, which has been improved tremendously by the techniques I learned from G&W.

As an independent technology and management consultant, I can't have enough tools to facilitate the work on my projects. This book is a must read for project managers or business analysts who are involved in creation of any kind of product or service from software development to manufacturing to new media.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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