Involve Your Customers for Better Requirements

Have you ever heard something like “This feature (system) doesn't look anything like what I expected and doesn't do what I want”-even though you were confident that you knew what your customers wanted? Jennifer Bonine presents a strategy for involving customers up front and throughout the requirements definition process. She discusses how you can engage customers and set their expectations for involvement in the project before it begins. Jennifer outlines how to identify customer groups to engage in a joint IT–Business software requirements process in which the customers and the technology team work as peers. She describes the skill sets required for developers participating in this process and explores the reality that not every developer will be able to or want to transition to this model. Discover how the software requirements and development process must change for a project or team to adopt user stories, early prototyping, "day in the life" replication sessions, and putting developers out in the field with your users.