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Software Requirements and Specifications: A Lexicon of Practice, Principles and Prejudices
Software Reqiuirements and Specifications is the latest book from Michael Jackson, one of the foremost contributors to software development method and practice. The book brings together some 75 short pieces about principles and techniques for requirements analysis, specification and design.
The ideas discussed are deep, but at the same time lightly and wittily expressed. The book is fun to read, rewarding the reader with many valuble and novel insights. Some sacred cows, including top-down development, dataflow diagrams and the distinction between What and How, are led to the slaughter. Readers will be provoked--perhaps to fury, perhaps to enthusiasm, but surely to think more deeply about topics and issues of central importance in the field of software development.
There are new ideas about problem structuring, based on the concept of a problem frame, leading to a clearer notion of complexity and how to deal with it. And other important topics include:
Principles for evaluating development methods New approaches to capturing and describing requirements and specifications, based on the relationship between the software system and the problem context The technology of desciption in software, including new ideas such as designations, the separation of descriptive moods and the scope and span of description Incisive information about the proper role of mathematics and formalism.
"
The ideas discussed are deep, but at the same time lightly and wittily expressed. The book is fun to read, rewarding the reader with many valuble and novel insights. Some sacred cows, including top-down development, dataflow diagrams and the distinction between What and How, are led to the slaughter. Readers will be provoked--perhaps to fury, perhaps to enthusiasm, but surely to think more deeply about topics and issues of central importance in the field of software development.
There are new ideas about problem structuring, based on the concept of a problem frame, leading to a clearer notion of complexity and how to deal with it. And other important topics include:
Principles for evaluating development methods New approaches to capturing and describing requirements and specifications, based on the relationship between the software system and the problem context The technology of desciption in software, including new ideas such as designations, the separation of descriptive moods and the scope and span of description Incisive information about the proper role of mathematics and formalism.
"
228 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 1995
3 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Michael A. Jackson
9 books6 followersProfessor Michael Anthony Jackson (born 1936) works as an independent computing consultant in London, England, and also as a part-time researcher at AT&T Research, Florham Park, NJ, U.S.. He is a visiting research professor at the Open University in the UK.
Jackson was educated at Harrow School where he was taught by Christopher Strachey and wrote his first program under Strachey's guidance. He then studied classics at Oxford University (known as "Greats"), where he was a fellow student with C. A. R. Hoare, two years ahead of him. They had a shared interest in logic, which was studied as part of Greats at Oxford.
In the 1970s, Jackson developed Jackson Structured Programming (JSP). In the 1980s, with John Cameron, he developed Jackson System Development (JSD). Then, in the 1990s, he developed the Problem Frames Approach. In collaboration with Pamela Zave, he created Distributed Feature Composition, a virtual architecture for specification and implementation of telecommunication services.
Jackson was educated at Harrow School where he was taught by Christopher Strachey and wrote his first program under Strachey's guidance. He then studied classics at Oxford University (known as "Greats"), where he was a fellow student with C. A. R. Hoare, two years ahead of him. They had a shared interest in logic, which was studied as part of Greats at Oxford.
In the 1970s, Jackson developed Jackson Structured Programming (JSP). In the 1980s, with John Cameron, he developed Jackson System Development (JSD). Then, in the 1990s, he developed the Problem Frames Approach. In collaboration with Pamela Zave, he created Distributed Feature Composition, a virtual architecture for specification and implementation of telecommunication services.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 27, 2017
Deep! The idea of specifying and modeling both the problem and the solution together, in overlapping domains, makes perfect sense. So why did it take so long for this brilliant idea to resurface again in the form of Domain-Driven Design, eight years later, and then why are so few developers actually applying this method, then or now? It takes discipline, sure, but now that I have had a glimpse of how software development can be driven by analysis and models that are firmly connected to the context of the problem to be solved -- I won't be able to forget that there is a better way!
January 4, 2022
I don't remember how I discovered this book. Maybe it was through Bentley's "Programming Pearls". In any case, it's not one of the books that show up in those "Top N books every programmer must read"--what is is with list makers and imperatives anyway? But it is a good book. And you'll get a lot out of it if you read it. At least I did.
The book's format means you can read it in leisurely sittings (but don't forget about ACTIVE READING). And you can pick and choose which parts you find most interesting. But it helps if you treat this book as a graph, and read a whole path at a time. There are a few in the introduction.
Despite the author's idiosyncratic terminology, the lexicon entries are full of insightsful and useful suggestions. I honestly don't think I picked up on everything, but the few main ideas that come up again and again stuck with me, and I'll try to apply them in my day to day practice.
The book's format means you can read it in leisurely sittings (but don't forget about ACTIVE READING). And you can pick and choose which parts you find most interesting. But it helps if you treat this book as a graph, and read a whole path at a time. There are a few in the introduction.
Despite the author's idiosyncratic terminology, the lexicon entries are full of insightsful and useful suggestions. I honestly don't think I picked up on everything, but the few main ideas that come up again and again stuck with me, and I'll try to apply them in my day to day practice.
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March 10, 2014Very good
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews