Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs
by Ellen Gottesdiener
Addison-Wesley (ISBN: 0-201-78606-0)

Ellen Gottesdiener’s down-to-earth writing style combined with her extensive knowledge of requirements gathering make Requirements by Collaboration a must-have book for Product and Project Managers, Technology Leads, Facilitators, Business Analysts and Information Architects.

Gottesdiener employs engaging sidebars, useful figures, and a bounty of experience to explain the complex process of eliciting and describing user needs. Her infusion of quiet wisdom with extensive workshop exercises and tools energizes the reader in planning their own projects.

She has designed the workshops and exercises in such a way that they can easily apply to traditional software applications, web applications or even a pure content project that addresses a diverse audience. Her narrative examples as well as the case studies effectively transfer the concepts into something tangible.

Her years of software development experience coupled with her straightforward writing style make Gottesdiener’s book a perfect choice for either a senior developer or a mid-level project manager. In addition to her technical experience, her knowledge of group dynamics round out the book by educating the reader on how to manage conflict and personality differences within a requirements team – something that is missing from most requirements textbooks.

Software and web development teams can quickly and easily put Gottesdiener’s book to practice. Requirements by Collaboration is a required “handbook” that will be referred to again and again.