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New Post 11/12/2009 2:42 AM
User is offline Mark Ridgwell
13 posts
10th Level Poster


Straddling the just-good-enough requirements divide - when is "good-enough" good enough? 
Modified By Adrian M.  on 11/14/2009 2:09:24 AM)

Straddling the "good-enough" requirements divide
What does "good-enough" mean to you?

I've been thinking about comments recently regarding "good enough" to which there seem to be many conflicting views and perhaps some lack of clarity - so I'd like to explore this topic further.

I've started a model on this - to tease-out what good-enough really means to other practitioners, how it's best applied and what benefits / drawbacks it brings. This is an interpretation of some interesting comments and commentary I've collected from forum discussions and from people like Robert Capps (Wired), Scott Ambler, Gene Leganza and Brenda Michelson (excerpts in bottom link).

Of course, this is not an all encompassing picture, so please pile-in with your practice views on good-enough. I look forward to learning your insights:

<links has been removed by forum administrator>

Best regards,
Mark

 
New Post 11/12/2009 12:55 PM
User is offline Tony Markos
493 posts
5th Level Poster


Re: Straddling the just-good-enough requirements divide - when is "good-enough" good enough? 

Mark:

A functional requirement is "good enough" when it captures the essential.   And the main essentials are identification of the required functions/processes and their inputs and outputs.  Also essential is identification of where those inputs and outputs come from/go to.

The authors of the BABOK 2.0 are aware of this.  The BABOK 2.0 is a functional spec on how to create a functional spec, and the document's authors organized it around input/process/output diagrams.

Now "just good-enough" requirements is a battle cry of the Agile community.  However, for them it really appears to be  largely just a sound bite, as none of the modeling techniques commonly assoicated with Agile gives serious consideration to input, outputs, and their interrelationships.  That is why none of the people you mention can not say anything concrete as to what are the specific attributes of a "good enough" requirement.    Things on your model like "Percieve what is good enough for your audience." and "Pick a use case senario and stick with it" are recommended steps to eliciting requirements, but - and this is critical - they do little to provide insight as to what the essentials of a requirement should be.

Tony

 
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