Requirements Engineering: From System Goals to UML Models to Software Specifications Book Review

This is not for the happy go lucky requirements gatherer. It is a detailed breakdown of everything requirements engineering for software intensive systems. It will make you think. The book describes the KAOS method in detail and the author uses Objectiver as the modeling tool. Sometimes a book is not worth buying when you are not using the tool. That is not the case with this book. It is packed with valuable advice and examples. Reading the book did prompt me to download Objectiver. Very cool tool, but it is also complex. Complex is not a bad thing when you consider this book is about an engineering discipline, and engineering is needed because you are trying to do something complex. The author covers the fundamentals of Requirements Engineering in detail in the first part of the book, Building System Models for Requirements Engineering in part two, and then Reasoning About System Models in part three. This book does exactly what the title says, it shows you how to go from System Goals to UML Models to Software Specifications. If you are building complex systems, this book is definitely for you. I highly recommend this book, and have nothing negative to say about.

Microsoft .NET RIA Services May 2009 Preview Available

Microsoft has released the Microsoft .NET RIA Services May 2009 Preview.

Overview (from MSDN)
The .NET RIA Services is a framework that provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations.

Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. It also provides end-to-end support for common tasks such as data validation, authentication and roles by integrating with Silverlight components on the client and ASP.NET on the mid-tier.

Get the install and whitepaper here.