Software developers love tools for coding, debugging, testing, and configuration management. The more these tools improve the How of coding, the more we see that we're behind the curve on improving the What, Why, and When. If you've been on a project that seemed vague, adrift, and endless, this talk can help. Make your projects run SMART.

1. Requirements:
the Last Bottleneck
Bill Karwin
ZendCon • Santa Clara • 2010/11/3

2. Me
• Software developer
• C, Java, Perl, PHP, Ruby
• SQL maven
• Author of new book
SQL Antipatterns

3. cost

4. the greatest single cost
in producing software is
programmer time

5. code faster!

6. Tools for reducing programmer time
• Dynamic languages
• Lots of functions
• OO design
• Code reuse
• Code generation
• IDE’s
• Frameworks
• Source control
• Test automation
• Agile development

7. • Tools help productivity for coding and
error removal
• But not so much for requirements
management

8. Error removal is the most time-
consuming part of development
Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, Robert L. Glass

9. Cost to fix a defect
Software Requirements, Karl E.Wiegers
Code Complete, Steve McConnell

10. code faster?

11. code less!

12. Front-load the project
Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, Robert L. Glass

13. managing requirements
reduces project cost

14. so why don’t we do it?

15. “We practice
Agile Development, so we
don’t need requirements.”
Really?

16. Agile Manifesto?
Principle #2:
“Welcome changing requirements,
even late in development.”
http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

17. Test-Driven Design?
“TDD is very good at detailed specification and
validation, but not so good at thinking through
bigger issues such as the overall design, how
people will use the system, or the UI design
(for example).”
Introduction toTest-Driven Design, Scott W.Ambler
http://www.agiledata.org/essays/tdd.html

18. Extreme Programming?
Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, Kent Beck
Coding
If you don’t code, you
haven’t done anything.
Testing
If you don’t test, you don’t
know when you are done
coding.
Listening
If you don’t listen you
don’t know what to code
or what to test.
Design
So you can keep coding
and testing and listening
indefinitely.

19. Scrum?
• Product Backlog: the prioritized list of
desired project outcomes/features
http://www.scrumalliance.org/learn_about_scrum

20. Repeat for each Agile iteration

21. “Every time the design
changes, we have to update
the requirements doc.”

22. “Requirements are not architecture.
Requirements are not design,
nor are they interface.
Requirements are need.”
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master,Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

23. do not dictate the
implementation
in the requirements

24. Decoupling
• Familiar principle of OO design
• Interface vs. implementation
• Design patterns (Strategy, Bridge, etc.)

25. Decouple requirements from solutions
Solution 2
C#, .NET
Solution 1
Java, Spring
Solution 3
PHP
Require-
ments
☒
☑
☒

26. “How much detail
is enough?”

27. “If it takes more than 15 minutes to
determine what it is that you’re building,
the spec wasn’t done properly.”
Really?

28. • Imagine your boss has a great idea
• He’s going to describe his idea to you
• You’re to code it while he’s gone
• He has to leave in 15 minutes
• Here’s his vision...

30. How much is enough?
• Probably a bit more than 15 minutes
• But not a whole book
• Focus on goals to satisfy, not design or
implementation

31. “No one reads
requirements docs anyway.”

32. • Right—if the docs aren’t helpful
• Make the docs helpful to developers
• Describe what to build, not how

33. SMART goals

34. specific
measurable
achievable
results-oriented
timely

35. Specific
• Be concrete; use action verbs
• Users will have an intuitive experience using our
software.
• Users will be able to post textual content of
140 characters or fewer, and to search the
content posted by others.
☒
☑

36. Specific
• Also specify what the project does not need
• Support all browsers, full stop. It doesn’t matter
how obscure or how old.
• Test the browser brands/versions used by 97%
of the target market.
☒
☑

37. Measurable
• Describe testable or quantifiable goals
• The web site will work at web scale.
• The web site will serve up to 10 million users;
up to 10 thousand posting simultaneously;
up to 500 thousand reading content stream.
☒
☑

38. Measurable
• Measure progress as well as final result
• The whole site must have no security issues.
• Certify that each application use case is secure.
☒
☑

39. Achievable
• Set goals that are feasible and possible;
stay appropriate to scope
• Our site will change the way people
communicate on the web.
• Our site will let users contribute bite-sized
content and search the content stream by
users, by lists of users, or by tags or trends.
☒
☑

40. Results-oriented
• Describe outputs or results—not activities
• Developers will always strive to achieve optimal
performance.
• The landing page will respond in ~0.5 sec;
other pages will respond in ~1.0 sec.
☒
☑

41. Results-oriented
• Describe outputs or results—not activities
• The developers will use LAMP stack, REST
architecture, scrum methodology, and git.
• Don’t dictate technology choices, design, or
methodology in requirements.
☒
☑

42. Time-related
• Use specific, realistic deadlines;
include milestones, schedule
• We need our web site to go live sooner rather
than later.
• Four weeks for design;
three weeks for developing prototype;
one week for performance testing;
three weeks for refactoring;
one week for final work and deployment.
☒
☑

43. Evaluation
• Often forgotten phase
• Testing is part of this of course
• Other review of how well you met the
requirements
• In Agile terms, delivery to customer
• Spell out evaluation criteria in requirements

44. manage requirements
to develop more
efficiently

45. decouple requirements
from solutions

46. be SMART

47. SQL Antipatterns:
Avoiding the Pitfalls
of Database Programming
http://www.pragprog.com/titles/bksqla/

48. Copyright 2010 Bill Karwin
www.slideshare.net/billkarwin
Released under a Creative Commons 3.0 License:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
You are free to share - to copy, distribute and
transmit this work, under the following conditions:
Attribution.
You must attribute this
work to Bill Karwin.
Noncommercial.
You may not use this work
for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works.
You may not alter,
transform, or build
upon this work.