The Art of Agile Development, 2nd Edition

Incremental Requirements

AUDIENCE

Customers

We determine requirements details just before they’re needed.

Traditional processes create a requirements document that—in theory—describes exactly how the software is supposed to work. This document is created by business analysts during an up-front requirements gathering phase.

But Agile teams don’t use phases, and story cards aren’t miniature requirements documents. How do they know what to build?

The Living Requirements Document

Agile teams prefer face-to-face communication, as “FACE-TO-FACE CONVERSATION” discussed. On-site customers—team members with the skill to represent buyers, users, and business stakeholders—are responsible for answering questions about requirements. They act as a living requirements document for the team. They communicate with the rest of the team via conversations, examples, and whiteboard sketches. This is faster and less error-prone than handing off documents, especially for complex topics. When developers need to understand a requirement, they just ask.

On-site customers are expected to figure out requirements just prior to being asked about them. The key to doing this successfully is expertise. Depending on the needs of your software, your team should include someone with product management skills, who figures out what to build and why; someone with domain expertise, who understands the nitty-gritty of the profession your software supports; someone with UX design skills, who studies users to understand ...