Telling Stories: A Short Path to Writing Better Software Requirements

Book Description

Once upon a time, it was well understood that stories teach better than plain facts. Why then are most software requirements documents a baffling hodge-podge of diagrams, data dictionaries, and bullet points, held together by little more than a name and a staple? Telling Stories teaches you to combine proven standards of requirements analysis with the most ancient and effective tool for sharing information, the narrative. Telling Stories simplifies and refines the classic methods of Structured Analysis, providing organization, design, and old-fashioned writing advice. Whether you?re just getting started or an experienced requirements writer, Telling Stories can help you turn dull, detailed material into an engaging, logical, and readable story, a story that can make the difference for your project and your career.

• Learn why readers believe and remember what they learn from stories
• Work with team members to gather content, tell their stories, and win their support
• Use stories to find every requirement
• Create diagrams that almost tell the story on their own (while looking clear and professional)
• Explain everything important about a process
• Use precise language to remove the ambiguity from requirements
• Write a forceful executive summary that stands on its own and sells a project to senior management
• Summarize often to keep the reader focused on key issues
• Structure the document so every part has a clear place and purpose

About the Author

Ben Rinzler is a seasoned technical writer, manager, and requirements analyst. He has worked for over twenty years at leading technology and financial services firms, including Apple, Macromedia (now Adobe), and Morgan Stanley. He has taught his requirements approach to writers, analysts, managers, and developers in the U.S. and abroad.

Customer Reviews

"Telling Stories" offers the simple truth that people learn best through storytelling and that the best software requirements are plotted with this in mind. Having spent a good many years as a student, teacher, and technology writer myself, I appreciate a book that gets to the heart of communication and in the process makes me smile.

Ben Rinzler is a great storyteller and his funny insights into the workings of the workplace, with all its communication challenges, ring true. There is a lot of material here, including a surprisingly broad survey of different informing disciplines (the work of Joe Williams is referenced, for example). Despite the quantity of material covered, it never feels like a plod and has lots of good visuals and examples all the way through.

"Telling Stories" continues to be a good "go to" reference and it now lives on my desk at work, right between the computer and Strunk and White.

I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone that is in the business of writing technical documents. This easy to understand book is full of great examples, written in a witty and creative way (such as the flow diagram telling the story of "Little Red Riding Hood"). It was a pleasure to read and, as someone that writes technical documents professionally, a great guide to remind me how to do my job the right way.