Better Software Magazine Articles

In Other Words: How Paraphrasing Helps Uncover Defects

Take one phrase, throw in three different interpretations, and add zero communication: It all adds up to one big defect. Find out how paraphrasing can help you to uncover hidden problems.
Kathy Walker
April 14, 2004
An Elephant in the Room

We make software so that people can use it. Yet these users are so hard to define that they are often simply ignored. This six-step approach to Interaction Design can help you bring your customers down to size so that you can provide the right product for them.
Jeff Patton's picture Jeff Patton
April 1, 2004
You Don't Say

You've just developed and tested a system that meets each of the customer’s stated requirements. So why aren't they satisfied? Lisa Crispin shares her 5-step process for uncovering hidden assumptions and requirements so that everyone can have the happy ending they expected.
Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
November 19, 2003
Common Requirements Traps - And How to Avoid Them

This article details common requirements traps that teams fall into. Tips to help your team avoid these traps are also included.
Karl Wiegers, Process Impact
The Reality of XP: A Real World Case Study

This article explains what XP Programming is and how implementing it can benefit your team.
Drake Kirkham, Cirrus Systems Corporation
Testing is About Requirements Specification - An Agile View

This article details how to manage your XP Programming project.
Robert Martin, Object Mentor
Judging Use Case Quality

Great test procedures cannot compensate for poor requirements. Good use cases are hard to write. This article details how to develop an effective use case for your project team.
Steve Adolph, WSA Consulting Inc.
Use Cases for Maximizing Project Success

This article will teach you to: understand how use cases can be used on non-oo projects, employ solid techniques to develop "good" use cases, leverage use cases to increase user accountability for requirements completeness, and how to apply measurement benefits to use case deployment.
Carol Dekkers, Quality Plus Technologies Inc
Gathering Requirements in a Low-Process Environment

Knowing the requirements for a system means understanding the problem to be solved. If the problem isn't understood, the solution can't address it. Not taking time for requirements discovery at the beginning will cost far more time and money in the end. This paper explains requirements gathering techniques.
Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
Testing and Implicit Requirements: Expanding the Unwritten Specification

Testers should be encouraged to test against and report deviations from implicit specifications. There is a Universal Implicit Specification that is based on
fundamental principles. These principles are: the system will not lie, the system will impose no gratuitous keyholes or other constraints, and the system won’t do anything that’s just plain stupid.It’s worthwhile to identify, elaborate, and make explicit the fundamental principles and
common manifestations of deviations from these principles.
Scott Meyers, Aristeia.com

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