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Roughly half of the software projects fail or are delayed and exceed their budget. Even if a system is finally delivered, it does not always meet the expectations of the customers. Six team skills explain how to build and maintain a set of requirements. The first team skill, 'Analyzing the problem' describes how to identify users and stakeholders of a system. The second team skill 'Understanding user needs' discusses techniques like interviewing, requirements workshop and brainstorming. In team skill three, 'Defining the system' one produces a vision document and identifies the person responsible for the product. The fourth team skill, 'Managing scope' describes that risk assessment and planning are essential tasks. Team skill five, 'Refining the system definition' describes how to maintain detailed requirements in a Software Requirements Specification. Team skill six makes sure that you build the right system, using validation and verification.

If your company has difficulties in defining and maintaining the system requirements, this book could greatly improve the focus of your efforts if a few people in your company would read it. It is slightly, but not exclusively, geared towards OO development. It identifies where use cases can be useful.

In applying this book to your first step of software development, you would clearly have overcome a very big initial hurdle and could be confident that your design and implementation were more focused and likely to be successful. The book has a very good layout with correct summaries and introductions. It is easy to read and later refer back to specific sections.