Nothing is more important to a software project’s success than understanding what problems it needs to solve. Requirements provide the foundation for that success. If the development team and its customers don’t agree on the product’s capabilities and characteristics, the most likely outcome is one of those unpleasant software surprises that we’d all prefer to avoid. If your current requirements practices aren’t giving you the results you need, selectively and thoughtfully apply the techniques presented in this book that you think might help. Effective requirements engineering involves:

Changing the way an organization works is difficult. It’s hard to acknowledge that your current approaches aren’t working as well as you’d like and to figure out what to try next. It’s hard to find the time to learn about new techniques, develop improved processes, pilot and adjust them, and roll them out to the rest of the organization. And it can be difficult to convince the various stakeholders that change is needed. However, if you don’t change the way your teams work, there’s no reason to believe that the next project will go any better than the last one.

Success in software process improvement depends on:

Keep these process improvement principles in mind as you define a road map to improved requirements engineering performance. Stay grounded in practical approaches that are appropriate for your organization and team. If you actively apply known good practices and rely on common sense, you can significantly improve how you handle your project’s requirements, with all the advantages and benefits that brings. And remember that without excellent requirements, software is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get.