Title: Software Requirements Essentials
Subtitle: Core Practices for Successful Business Analysis
Author: Karl Wiegers and Candase Hokanson
Details: Hardcover, 7×9, 208 pages, ISBN: 978-0138190286, June 2023
Retail Price: $34.99
Reviews:
“Many companies have spent a great deal of time and effort on project portfolio management with little ROI to show for it. We finally have a true guide for executives looking to bring sanity, maturity, and visibility to their IT investments.”
—Marilyn Weinstein, CEO, Vivo, Inc.
“This is very exciting new book in the sense that it will greatly enhance any CIO’s efforts to improve their company’s portfolio capability maturity.”
—Greg Taffet, CIO, US Gas and Electric, Inc.
Description
This unique text discusses why project portfolio management has been elusive to most organizations. It explains how an impactful portfolio is attainable using a back-to-basics approach that includes the use of a simplified form of earned value management called mEVM for measuring and managing a portfolio, adapting it to changing situations, and executing effective decisions. Every section of this practical desk reference provides guidance for getting your portfolio up and running quickly to achieve immediate results. Whether you already have a project portfolio, or are starting to build a portfolio from scratch, this breakthrough book will show you how to obtain a high-performing project portfolio without investing in expensive tools.
Key Features
- Sequentially covers the essential capabilities of an effective portfolio and provides a logical construct of how the different capability areas interact
- Provides a complete understanding of all the building blocks of a portfolio, the critical success factors needed to achieve desired results, and the nuances involved in implementing them
- Introduces a pioneering mEVM methodology and articulates various strategies for implementing it within an organization
- Explains how to effectively monitor and manage the performance of a portfolio, the important task of balancing a portfolio, and how to ensure the realization of project benefits
- Presents a detailed look at portfolio governance including how to ensure that it provides successful direction for the portfolio
- Explores the important relationship between the portfolio office, CIO, and finance department and supplies effective funding strategies for project portfolios
About the Author
Karl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company in Happy Valley, Oregon. Previously, he spent eighteen years at Kodak, where he held positions as a photographic research scientist, software developer, software manager, and software process and quality improvement leader. Karl received a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois. Karl is the author of thirteen previous books and has written many articles on software development, management, design, consulting, chemistry, and military history. Karl has served on the editorial board for IEEE Software magazine and as a contributing editor for Software Development magazine. He is the author of Software Development Pearls (Addison-Wesley, 2022).
Candase Hokanson is a Business Architect and PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner at ArgonDigital, a software development, professional services, and training company based in Austin, Texas. Candase graduated from Rice University with a BS and MS in civil engineering and a BA in religious studies. She is an active member of the product and business analysis communities, previously serving as a co-chair for the Keep Austin Agile conference in 2019 and president of the Austin IIBA. She has authored multiple articles on using visual models in agile, requirements in agile, and agile in the large enterprise.