Specification by Example is a collaborative approach for constructing executable requirements. Examples demonstrate how the system should operate through the eyes of its users and shows understanding of the application’s functions. Michael Connolly demonstrates the practical and easy-to-implement Specification by Example method which he uses to write user stories and acceptance criteria. This direct approach, in which requirements are elaborated via executable code, creates a solid communication bridge between non-technical and technical staff and managers within the organization. Eventually, these executable requirements become the basis for the system’s acceptance test suite. As a take away, Michael provides participants with a lightweight requirements document format and an acceptance criteria framework to help you translate written specifications into automation.

Speedy delivery is almost always a primary project goal or a significant project constraint. To shorten project duration without sacrificing quality or budget, you need to know where to focus the team’s efforts. Mining the QSM database containing many quantitative metrics and numerous qualitative attributes, Paul Below shares the factors that have the greatest influence on project duration. While he’s at it, Paul debunks a couple of myths. For example, many managers consider team skill to be important in determining duration of software projects-not so. The most important factors are certain types of tooling, architecture, testing efficiency, and management/leadership skills, which Paul explores in depth. Learn a technique for normalizing your projects for size by computing the standardized residual of duration.

Poorly defined requirements are even more dangerous than no requirements because they offer the illusion that all is well during development. However, when user acceptance testing begins, requirements problems surface and the users rightly say, “I don’t care that the system test has passed, this isn’t what we need, and we won’t be signing off.” Steve Caseley reviews the actions he took to rework the requirements on two failed projects and the changes he made to get new projects off to the right start. Steve explores how statements such as “new reports must be balanced with the old reports” were re-written to identify quantifiable variances. He shows how other loosely defined requirements were reworked to provide clear mapping of measurable requirements to expected test results.

Mature agile teams work together to ensure sufficient requirement information is ready when an iteration starts. However, on many teams, developers lack this support and may receive overly detailed-and often ambiguous-requirements that are “thrown over the wall.” Drawing on recent industry research and successes of companies with which he’s worked, Chris Duro shares stories from three companies that evolved an agile adoption requirements readiness assessment framework. They used this framework to quantify the requirements problems, obtain management visibility, and win improvements in their requirements process. Chris answers key questions about the framework: How is readiness defined and measured? What is the tester’s role in agile requirements development? How can agile teams check thousands of requirement document pages automatically?