Why and how you should write specifications on agile projects.

1. Agile
Specification
Markdown-based Specification and
Requirement Management
• Roman Roelofsen
Prof. Dr. Stephan Wilczek
1
Meeting Software Engineering & Management 2015
Dresden, 2015-03-19

2. For demonstration purposes:
Summarized in 3 roles
Client PM / PO Developer
P

3. • What is the software supposed to do?
• What is the current state of the software?
• How and when is which function put into action?
• Milestones, implementation schedule etc.
Client

4. PM / PO
• Organizing and planning
• Managing the project team
• Managing the project delivery
• Identifying new requirements
• Prioritizing the backlog (milestones)
• Managing the product backlog
• Delivering reliable information

5. Developer
• Focus on the work packages stored in the backlog
• New Features
• Bugs
• Work packages are processed iteratively
• Work packages can change constantly
• Documentation?

6. Agile software development
Requirement management
Work Package
upstream downstream
(implicit)
detected
requirement
explicit
requirement
requirement
misdescribed
requirement
incorrectly
implemented
bug

7. Tooling, exemplifying
Text format
familiar structures, chapters,
subchapters, images,
requirements can be explained
Ticket system
requirements and bugs are mixed
together - distinction based on
characteristics
Missing meta data, requirements need to be
extracted into another system, change tracking?
Notifications? Collaboration? Planning?
Current state of the overall project?
Missing context, transient and redundant,
description of the technical requirements (ticket?
attachment? comments?)
Current state of the overall project?

8. • Different tools are mixed to handle the same data
• Risk of errors and lost information
• Increased workload
• Complete overview?
• Issue: central and local tools are mixed together
Tooling: Summary

9. • Client
• System documentation
• Used for software acceptance tests
• PM / PO
• Focus on the requirements and
their implementation
• „Big Picture“
• Developer
• Technical documentation
• „quotable“ / „processible"
Why a specification for an agile project?

10. What is an „Agile Specification“?
Overall
documentation
Current state of
the software
(requirements)
Requirements
embedded in the
specification
Information is
safe
The specification
arises
incidentally
Collaborative
Writing
Issue Tracking
(milestones etc.)
PDF and CSV
Export One place for
requirements and
tickets

11. Specification for agile projects

12. Tool:
Specification and requirement management
• Agile thinking
• Central platform for all parties involved in the project
• Syntax easy to learn (markdown)
• Requirements in the text should be easily recognizable by everyone
• Provisioning of meta-data (versioning, editing history etc.)
• Manage the conditions of requirements, e.g. to mark new
requirements, report new issues of the target state etc.
• Change tracking and notifications
• Generate specific reports for the entire project
• Create the specification in a graphically appealing form

13. Tool:
Specification and requirement management
Requirement
Specification
Development
Planning
Reporting
PDF / CSV
Export
Meta-data
Text / Specification

14. Tool:
Specification and requirement management
Text / Specification
Specification / PDFRequirement
Meta-data
Development ReportingPlanning

15. Live Demo

16. https://agilespecs.com/
Images:
Freepik, http://www.freepik.com, Creative Commons BY 3.0
Roman Roelofsen
rr@rodalo.com
Rodalo GmbH
Prof. Dr. Stephan Wilczek
wilczek@hdm-stuttgart.de
Hochschule der Medien