Requirements

Better Software Magazine Articles

The Three Amigos: All for One and One for All

Analysts determine what needs to be created. Programmers create it. Testers find the holes in the work of both. That's one way to do it, but all three can collaborate to do these things better, and more easily, too.

George Dinwiddie's picture George Dinwiddie
Imaginary Friends: Creating Software with Personas

We all want to satisfy our users, but tailoring software to customers is easier said than done. Personas—a method to synthesize your primary users into abstract entities—facilitates understanding of goals and experiences.

Shmuel Gershon
Testing Under Pressure

A cast-in-concrete delivery date looms on your project’s horizon. You have precious little time remaining, and the development team keeps delivering incomplete builds of unstable code. Is this a "death march" project, or can the testing team actually do something useful, or perhaps even save the day?

Robert Sabourin's picture Robert Sabourin
The Third Age Of Requirements

During the First Age of Requirements, programmers ruled the Earth. Today, programmers again lead the way but the possibilities for software development are unimaginable. You'd better be prepa

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Works as Designed

How many times have you heard the phrase "works as designed" used to describe software that is flawed and in some cases not fit for use? While "works as designed" has become an acceptable response for some, for real professionals, it's not.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Documenting Exploratory Testing

Exploratory testing projects can have documentation requirements, just like any other project. Jonathan describes various ways we can create documentation on our exploratory testing projects, including guidance documents, test-coverage reports, and video software to help create lightweight, powerful documentation.

Jonathan Kohl's picture Jonathan Kohl
How Do You Write Good User Stories?

Expert answers to frequently asked questions. In this issue, David Hussman explains how to write good user stories.

David Hussman's picture David Hussman
Action Based Testing

For many organizations, automation is a burden--even with good tools. Keywords are popular but don't suffice on their own. Action based testing places a high emphasis on modularized test design, not only making tests lean and mean but also allowing for very stable and maintainable automation.

Hans Buwalda's picture Hans Buwalda
Measure the Measurable: Improving Software Quality Through Telemetry

Observing customers in a usability lab can be invaluable for improving product design. But, once your software leaves the lab, do you know what your customers are actually doing and whether or not your software meets their expectations? Learn how engineers on the Microsoft Office team apply a variety of software telemetry techniques to understand real-world usage, how the results drive product improvements, and how you can apply similar techniques.

Jamie Campbell's picture Jamie Campbell
Enterprise Agile and the Business Analyst

Agile is making its way into the enterprise as a project methodology for industrial-strength projects. Why the popularity? The answer lies in the requirements paradox: “We want requirements to be stable, but requirements are never stable.” Discover some key agile concepts as they affect business analysts.

John C. Goodpasture's picture John C. Goodpasture

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