Suzanne Robertson

One of the joys of product development, whether it be software, service, or hardware, is getting it right. The way to get it right is to uncover the real business problem, and to write the requirements for the solution that best solves that problem. Without the right requirements it is impossible to build the right solution. Mastering the Requirements Process, Fourth Edition, gives you an industry-proven process for getting to the essence of the business problem and then writing unambiguous and testable requirements for its solution. This fourth edition is an almost complete rewrite that brings requirements discovery into today's world--it is the book for today's business analyst. Product owners and project leaders will also find it valuable as it explains how to discover precisely what the customer needs and wants, and to do it effectively in any business or project environment. The book tells you how to: Use the Volere requirements process to discover requirements in both traditional and agile environmentsIncorporate off-the-shelf (OTS) solutions into your requirements discoveryUse artificial intelligence (AI) as part of your requirements discovery, and as part of your business solutionUse quickly sketched prototypes to explore the problem spaceUnderstand functional and non-functional requirementsWrite better agile storiesMake your requirements and stories measurable and testable using fit criteriaUse business events as the heartbeat of business analysisDiscover requirements in agile, commercial, and milspec project environmentsFind and prioritize your customer segmentsLeverage systems thinking when discovering requirementsUse story maps and other requirements repository techniquesKnow which trawling techniques are the most effective for requirements discoverySynchronize your requirements discovery with agile development teamsMake better decisions in the early days of a project to increase your chances of successEmploy the Volere requirements specification template (downloaded 10,000+ times) as the basis for your own requirement specifications "One of the most valuable things about this book is that it provides a process to follow that will get people asking the right questions and expand their perspective on the problem." --Kevin Brennan Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Understand and Solve Your Customers’ Real Problems with Agile Business Analysis To deliver real value, you must understand what your customers truly value, and solve the problems they really need solved. Business analysis can help you do this—and it’s as crucial in agile environments now as it always has been. In Business Analysis Agility, leading experts James Robertson and Suzanne Robertson show how to perform business analysis in an agile way: trying new things, adapting to changes and discoveries, staying flexible, and being quick. Drawing on their unsurpassed experience of hundreds of projects and organizations, the Robertsons help you prioritize relentlessly, focus investments on delivering value, and learn in ways that improve your results. Uncover the real customer problems hidden behind assumptions and conventional solutionsHypothesize potential solutions and quickly test them with safe-to-fail probesUnderstand how people, hardware, software, organizations, and other components come together in an optimal customer experienceWrite stories that help you find solutions that deliver more value to customers and the businessThink about problems and projects in more agile, nimble, and open-minded ways The Robertsons’ approach to analytical thinking will be valuable to anyone who wants to build better software in agile environments: analysts, developers, team leads, project managers, software architects, and other team members and stakeholders at all levels of experience.

“If the purpose is to create one of the best books on requirements yet written, the authors have succeeded.” —Capers Jones Software can solve almost any problem. The trick is knowing what the problem is. With about half of all software errors originating in the requirements activity, it is clear that a better understanding of the problem is needed. Getting the requirements right is crucial if we are to build systems that best meet our needs. We know, beyond doubt, that the right requirements produce an end result that is as innovative and beneficial as it can be, and that system development is both effective and efficient. Mastering the Requirements Process: Getting Requirements Right, Third Edition, sets out an industry-proven process for gathering and verifying requirements, regardless of whether you work in a traditional or agile development environment. In this sweeping update of the bestselling guide, the authors show how to discover precisely what the customer wants and needs, in the most efficient manner possible. Features include The Volere requirements process for discovering requirements, for use with both traditional and iterative environments A specification template that can be used as the basis for your own requirements specifications Formality guides that help you funnel your efforts into only the requirements work needed for your particular development environment and project How to make requirements testable using fit criteria Checklists to help identify stakeholders, users, non-functional requirements, and more Methods for reusing requirements and requirements patterns New features include Strategy guides for different environments, including outsourcing Strategies for gathering and implementing requirements for iterative releases “Thinking above the line” to find the real problem How to move from requirements to finding the right solution The Brown Cow model for clearer viewpoints of the system Using story cards as requirements Using the Volere Knowledge Model to help record and communicate requirements Fundamental truths about requirements and system development

In her first collection of poems, Suzanne Robertson meditates on the nature of intimacy; the connective tissue that binds stranger to stranger, human to animal, soul to landscape, heart to mind. Inspired by the Buddhist paramitas ? actions that spark a spiritual sojourn, the poems attempt to both transcend and stay grounded in a conventional universe. Follow the humourous, pedestrian plight of a secretary/writer grappling with her noonday demon, her love affair with Little Black, and the metamorphosis of her marriage as she harnesses the practical power of poetry, marrying words "to the wind horse," "to the lies and the gossip and the truth of the river / as it pours out the mouth of right-now." Paramita, Little Black explores acts of transformation; documenting a journey to live and love authentically amidst the transient anatomy of our twenty-first century lives.