Karl Wiegers

“The goal of requirements development is clear and effective communication. Thus, it has to be done in an incremental and iterative fashion." Karl Wiegers is the coauthor of “Software Requirements Essentials” and has previously appeared in our episode #103. In this episode, we discussed 6 essential practices for software requirements out of the 20 core practices specified in his book. Karl also explained the importance of having a clear and effective communication in developing software requirements, his view on doing software requirements for Agile teams, and the importance of having good software requirements for becoming an effective software development team and for avoiding unnecessary rework.   Listen out for: What Karl is Up To Lately - [00:04:08] Writing “Software Requirements Essentials” - [00:05:20] Software Requirements - [00:10:19] Clear & Effective Communication - [00:13:20] Importance of Requirement Details - [00:16:19] Practice #1 - Understand the Problem Before Converging on a Solution - [00:22:05] Practice #3 - Define the Solution’s Boundaries - [00:26:26] Requirements Elicitation vs Requirements Gathering - [00:30:47] Practice #6 - Understand What Users Need to Do With the Solution - [00:33:01] Software Requirements in Agile - [00:37:06] Requirements & Effective Software Development - [00:40:59] Rework - [00:44:39] Practice #19 - Establish and Manage Requirement Baselines - [00:46:20] Practice #13 - Prioritize the Requirements - [00:49:17] Practice #20 - Manage Changes to Requirements Effectively - [00:52:22] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:54] _____ Karl Wiegers’s BioKarl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 14 books, including Software Requirements Essentials (with Candase Hokanson), Software Requirements (with Joy Beatty), Software Development Pearls, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction. Karl has delivered more than 650 training courses, webinars, and conference presentations worldwide. You can reach him at ProcessImpact.com or KarlWiegers.com, where you can also hear more than 50 songs he has recorded just for fun, including 18 originals that he wrote. Follow Karl: LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/karlwiegers Website – karlwiegers.com Software Requirements Essentials – softwarereqs.com Process Impact – processimpact.com Medium – karlwiegers.medium.com _____ Our Sponsors Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/133. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“A way to boost productivity is to create high-quality software from the outset, so that teams can spend less time on rework, both during development and after the release." Karl Wiegers is the author of “Software Development Pearls” and the Principal Consultant at Process Impact. In this episode, Karl shared some lessons he has learned over the past five decades of his career. We first discussed software requirement, its role for communication, and the importance of defining the right requirements. Karl then touched on the reasons we can’t optimize all desirable quality attributes and instead advised how we should define the quality attribute requirements. Next, Karl shared some project management pearls, related to work planning and dealing with estimates. Towards the end, Karl explained the relation between quality and productivity, using pain as a driver for improvement, and his ultimate pearl of wisdom. Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:05:46] Requirements for Communication - [00:08:07] Importance of the Right Requirements - [00:13:49] Importance of Definitions - [00:16:23] Optimizing Quality Attributes - [00:18:48] Specifying Quality Attribute Requirements - [00:21:59] Work Plans & Friction - [00:24:48] Giving Estimates - [00:31:03] Pressure to Making Commitment - [00:35:19] High Quality & Productivity - [00:39:38] Pain as Improvement Driver - [00:45:16] Ultimate Pearl - [00:50:25] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:09] _____ Karl Wiegers’s Bio Karl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 13 books, including Software Development Pearls, Software Requirements, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction. You can reach him at ProcessImpact.com or KarlWiegers.com, where you can hear more than 50 songs he has recorded just for fun, including 18 originals that he wrote. Follow Karl: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlwiegers Website – https://karlwiegers.com Process Impact – https://www.processimpact.com Medium – https://karlwiegers.medium.com Our Sponsors DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ. Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones. Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends. Like this episode? Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/103.