Articles

Upgrade 5 Tips for Modernizing a Legacy Platform

There are many reasons to consider modernizing your legacy software. But when doing so, it’s important to remember your customers who regularly use your product and to take their preferences, habits, and needs into consideration. Here are some practical tips to boost your chances of a smoother transition.

Kaushal Amin's picture Kaushal Amin
swing hanging from tree Finish on Time by Managing Scale

When deciding how a user's task is to be supported in our software, we often look at possible design solutions and select one that's best for the product and the user. As the project deadline approaches, however, we might choose to dismiss some features outright. In this column, Jeff Patton suggests we try keeping more features by adjusting their scale.

Jeff Patton's picture Jeff Patton

Better Software Magazine Articles

How Do You Write Good User Stories?

Expert answers to frequently asked questions. In this issue, David Hussman explains how to write good user stories.

David Hussman's picture David Hussman
Building a Foundation for Structured Requirements: Aspect-Oriented Requirements Engineering Explained (Part 2)

Aspect-oriented requirements engineering (AORE) is a new methodology that can help us to further improve the analysis, structure, and cost of development of software requirements. The second part of this two-part series focuses on the AORE specification techniques.

Yuri Chernak
Building a Foundation for Structured Requirements: Aspect-Oriented Engineering Explained (Part 1)

Aspect-oriented requirements engineering (AORE) is a new methodology that can help us improve the analysis, structure, and cost of development of software requirements. AORE does not replace but rather complements any of the existing requirements methodologies. This two-part paper explains to software practitioners the AORE concept, illustrates how it can be applied on software projects, and discusses the benefits of AORE. Part I focuses on the AORE analysis techniques.

Yuri Chernak
Form Fitting: Patterns to Judge the Effectiveness of Use Cases

You don't have to be Giorgio Armani to fashion effective use cases. Use case patterns can provide you with a vocabulary to help you describe and judge the quality of your use cases. Find out how you can use these patterns to improve your requirements modelin

Steve Adolph

Conference Presentations

STAREAST By the Reader, for the Reader: The Wall Street Journal’s Secrets to Customer-Centric Experiences
Slideshow

Readers of The Wall Street Journal have seen many stories about companies shutting their doors after years of success.

Sumeet Mandloi
STAREAST 2018 Behavior-Driven Development: Real-World Mind Reading
Slideshow

Imagine this scenario: Business users are excited to finally get their hands on an implementation delivery that is on schedule, (mostly) on budget, and passed rigorous testing with flying colors. Unfortunately, when working with the new app or feature, the users realize that the way they described their needs didn’t translate into what they actually needed. Sound familiar? While she may not be able to offer telekinetic mind-reading tools, Kim Tatum is convinced that leveraging a behavior-driven development (BDD) approach helps bridge the gap between domain experts and technical teams. Join Kim to discuss how natural, human-readable language ultimately creates shared accountability and reduces misunderstandings. Review how this framework is implemented on a variety of delivery projects and walk through an implementation approach and leading practices.

Kim Tatum
BSE Testing Rightsizing User Stories
Slideshow

User stories and their big brothers, epics, are an excellent way to describe requirements for a software system. They act as stakes in the ground to keep track of what the system needs to do, the type of user most interested in each feature, and the reason the requirement...

Dave Todaro
STARCanada Logo When User Stories Are Not Enough
Slideshow

IT organizations adopting agile development often struggle when applying agile to anything other than small, mid-sized, or non-critical applications. Because IT organizations must deal with the myriad business rules, non-functional requirements, industry regulations, and associated audits...

Tony Higgins

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