requirements management

Paper Requirements Discipline: Avoiding “Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts"

Absent an effective requirements baseline it is difficult to distinguish clarifications and error correction from enhancements and changes to the original ask.

Payson Hall's picture
Payson Hall
Agile team member pointing at user stories written on sticky notes What’s the Problem with User Stories?

Agile projects focus on very lightweight, simple requirements embodied in user stories. However, there are some problems with relying solely on user stories. They often don't contain enough accuracy for development, testing, or industry regulations. There's a better way to write detailed requirements that are still agile.

Adam Sandman's picture
Adam Sandman
Agile team members refining the product backlog Refine Your Product Backlog Continuously to Improve Flow

One way to address poorly defined product backlog items is to spend time refining the items as you go. Refining the backlog continuously helps the team deliver consistently and can lead to shorter planning meetings at the start of the sprint. It can even help improve reliability, velocity, and the quality of work.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
People applauding near a medal saying "2018" Top 10 TechWell Insights Stories of 2018

Many teams are embracing new practices, and several of last year's most-read stories reflect that, with topics such as AI, DevOps, and continuous testing. But it looks like lots of teams also want to get back to basics, because guides to tried-and-true agile and testing methods also ranked high. Check out the roundup.

Beth Romanik's picture
Beth Romanik
Cartoon showing a customer's request for a tree swing A Tester’s Role in Requirements Exploration

Agile is supposed to get people to talk to each other in real time. However, many teams still lack a shared understanding of what they are going to build, even as they start coding. As testers, we can explore feature specifications early, contributing to successful and timely delivery through defined requirements.

Janet Gregory's picture
Janet Gregory
Sheet of paper outlining software requirements Improving Requirements with Preemptive Testing

Most product defects are created during requirements definition. To significantly reduce and prevent requirements problems, consider making their management your software testers' responsibility. They can identify requirements defects as they are being developed, as well as work out mitigations for their root causes.

David Gelperin's picture
David Gelperin
A list of requirements with checkmarks Testing the Requirements: A Guide to Requirements Analysis

Everyone knows testing requirements is important, and everyone says they do it, but it seems like no one knows exactly how. The best way to solve this problem is to introduce a requirements analysis stage that has to be done before coding starts. No one knows a product as well as a tester who works with it every day!

Evgeny Tkachenko's picture
Evgeny Tkachenko
User stories Use Continuous Backlog Grooming to Refine Agile Requirements

Continuous backlog grooming means systematically refining your user stories: breaking up larger stories, obtaining detailed requirements, writing the requirements in terms of acceptance criteria and acceptance tests, and sharing and refining these details with the team. Acceptance test-driven development can help.

Susan Brockley's picture
Susan Brockley