What Do We Need To Know?

- William Sheridan -

Ian Sommerville & Pete Sawyer
REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING
John Wiley & Sons, Chichester/New York/Weinheim/Brisbane/Singapore/Toronto, 1997

James L. Mohler
TEACH YOURSELF HOW TO BECOME A WEBMASTER IN 14 DAYS (with CD-Rom)
Sams.net Publishing, Indianapolis, 1997

Making the Knowledge of Needs Explicit

The Sommerville & Sawyer book is one of the best written, and certainly the most useful on Requirements Engineering that I have ever seen. Requirements Engineering occurs during the first phase of a project, when the Systems Analyst talks AND LISTENS to the client, as well as analyzing the business, organization, and technology, so that a clear understanding can be gained of what the problems is. The only drawback of the entire book is, that the authors do not start with Gerry Weinberg's maxim: "No matter what the client says, there ALWAYS is a problem!" Fortunately, this maxim IS implicit in the authors' approach.

Believe it or not, this is the only book I have ever seen on Requirements Engineering which actually makes the claim of "engineering" credible for this task (and I have read a good many books on the topic!). The key to this approach is the "process improvement model" that guides the authors' thinking and practice:

"Revolutionary approaches to process improvement cost too much and are far too risky for most organizations. Rather, we are believers in an evolutionary approach to process improvement. A continuous improvement cycle through a series of small steps is required."

This is the ONLY procedure which makes sense in an organization. The fact that it is not recognized and stated more frequently, is one of the profoundest ironies of contemporary business analysis. Many consultants and gurus advocate swift, comprehensive, and continuous business process reengineering of a kind that can certainly be called "revolutionary". But Sommerville & Sawyer know better: "It is not sensible to take a casual or unstructured approach to process improvement."

Turning Requirements Engineering into an engineering discipline necessitates the adoption of a process which rationalizes the entire process from proposal to prototype and beyond. Sommerville and Sawyer have thought through the entire sequence. Their book is modularized so that each recommendation can be read and understood on its own as well as fit into the larger picture. They even give a list of the "Top Ten Guidelines" for those who want either a quick preview or a quick overview.

Guidelines to listening and talking, writing and reading, analysis and synthesis, are all here. Each module is a manageable length, so that it can be read and understood without labouring over the entire book, if you are using it as a reference source. The language is plain at the same time that it is articulate. By the end of the book a realization occurred to me: Requirements Engineering is a prototype for all of Systems Analysis, and the procedures that Sommerville and Sawyer had developed to rationalize that process, are themselves a prototype of how the process should work.

So, these guys practice what they preach. That is particularly important, because as the authors affirm (and as my own experience confirms), most consultants and companies do NOT use Requirements Engineering to set their own internal requirements. In other words, they don't apply their knowledge to their own practices. This is both frustrating and wasteful, but currently very typical. Hopefully this book will help to promote an evolutionary advance in organizational performance.

This book is available through Amazon.com Bookstore.

Engineering the Requirements for a WebMaster

So, what would be the result of a Requirements Engineering exercise for setting the responsibilities of a WebMaster? Without ever mentioning the term, James Mohler does a very credible job of outlining just that. TEACH YOURSELF HOW TO BECOME A WEBMASTER IN 14 DAYS is another of those titles that can be misleading if superficially interpreted. The title does NOT say that you can actually become a competent WebMaster in 14 days, just that you can learn about the basics in that timeframe (so that you can then spend the next 14 months practicing the application and improvement of these skills).

Mohler divides the book into two categories of advice. First there are the six "roles" that a WebMaster has to perform to respond to the different challenges of webification:

• Internet Specialist
• Information Design Specialist
• Media Designer
• Technical Designer
• Technical Manager
• Professional Consultant

Then there are the six types of "tasks" that a WebMaster is responsible for, and may be called on to perform to get and keep a WebSite running:

• HTML Authorship & Textual Formatting
• Graphic and Image Designing
• Designing Tables
• Using Frames
• Designing and Using Interactive Electronic Forms
• Introducing and Managing Advanced Features

The book begins at "the ground level" so that a novice can learn the basics. More experienced cybernauts will still find the overview a good source for reference. The accompanying CD-Rom provides shareware versions or demos of many of the tools that a WebMaster will need. Mohler has done a fine job of Requirements Engineering for a WebMaster.

This book is available through Amazon.com Bookstore.

cypher@sympatico.ca

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