Learn proven, real-world techniques for specifying softwarerequirements with this practical reference. It details 30 requirement"patterns" offering realistic examples for situation-specific guidance forbuilding effective software requirements. Each pattern explains what arequirement needs to convey, offers potential questions to ask, points outpotential pitfalls, suggests extra requirements, and other advice. Thisbook also provides guidance on how to write other kinds of information thatbelong in a requirements specification, such as assumptions, a glossary,and document history and references, and how to structure a requirementsspecification. A disturbing proportion of computer systems are judged to be inadequate;many are not even delivered; more are late or over budget. Studiesconsistently show one of the single biggest causes is poorly definedrequirements: not properly defining what a system is for and what it'ssupposed to do. Even a modest contribution to improving requirements offersthe prospect of saving businesses part of a large sum of wasted investment.This guide emphasizes this important requirement need--determining what asoftware system needs to do before spending time on development. Expertlywritten, this book details solutions that have worked in the past, withguidance for modifying patterns to fit individual needs--giving developersthe valuable advice they need for building effective software requirements