Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise (Agile Software Development Series)

Dean has put together a gem of a book, taking all of his experience working with large-scale implementations of Agile and consolidating it into a model that you can apply across your enterprise.Part of what I like about his approach is that it doesn't ignore the realities of typical enterprise organizations. Besides developers and testers, you have architects, product managers, executives, etc. Most of these folks provide value (although executives may be questionable), and need to be engaged in the Agile requirements process.Dean has a great model for Agile Architecture that balances the need for team ownership and autonomy with a larger architectural roadmap and vision that works at scale. While a lot of Agile practitioners believe that architecture emerges, this is much harder to accomplish for projects that span teams, products, and geographies.The most innovative part of this title is the application of Lean principles to enterprise portfolio planning. At scale, the simple Lean principles, of streamlining flow and limiting work in process, provide the right constraints to drive value through the organization. Dean has the first wholistic model for this, which starts with filtering requirements from across the enterprise, proceeds through evaluation and architectural analysis, and completes with implementation on the teams.If you are looking for a book grounded in large-scale Agile implementation experience based on solid principles that can be applied to real organizations, then this is the right title for you.

This is a recommended book for anyone trying to use SAFe 4.0 in their office. It gives the basics of Agile software development. I use it periodically to make a point when someone in the office wants to stray too far from the guiding principals. The author, Dean Leffingwell, is considered the leading expert in Agile processes so you can't go wrong with a book he has authored.

It is difficult to improve on a review like the one Per Kroll wrote, but I do need to add my own opinion on the book.While the book's title may be deceptive, it is likely the best way to gather an audience for what I found to be an excellent and accessible recipe for implementing agile at scale. Having led Agile Teams at the Feature and Component Level, I know how powerful and fundamental those concepts are in engaging a team of over 100 people in a large Program.Most profitable organizations have bits and pieces of best practices within and readers will recognize this when they skim through the books later chapters where Leffingwell begins to synthesize the fundamentals of agility and lean practices "up the organization."Most organizations I have worked within "foam the runway" for large projects/programs to land. It is never pretty how ugly these landing can be with traditional planning only able to set up the "triage" ward for the inevitable crashes. This book describes how portfolio managers can create an agile architecture using epics to create a smooth landing for programs and keep the architecture aligned with the portfolio vision epics. Using lean techniques at the portfolio level brilliantly increases flow/reduces waste and keeps the focus on business value.The book is a breeze to read for the agile community but I also think the jargon is limited enough that any manager can grasp it's fundamental power, and implement basic ideas/concepts of the book within a week of picking it up. I certainly hope this is the case as I am delivering a handful to my local colleagues this week.

If you are interested in finding ideas to apply to solve problems as you scale your Agile implementation, this is a MUST read. The book not only has practical ideas which you can implement, it also provides you with the history and in some cases economic theory behind why it makes sense. Don't hesitate to buy this book as a guidebook to your scaling implementation. A must read for our development teams and product management.

This book really helped me organize scrum in an enterprise environment. Leffingwell discusses the various roles of product and portfolio management and how they can fit in to an agile adoption program. The flow of going from epics (portfolio management) to features and releaseplanning (program management) to user stories and task (project level) was also very helpful. In the end we organized our whole project with the help of this book! I also liked the idea of a technical product owner as business productowners are not always that involved when it comes down to managing the tasks resulting from the user stories...

Great book to understand the roots of the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe. The book is easy to read and enjoy.

Wanted to know how agile and requirements management are integrated with each other - both for the small team and the large enterprise. The author has great insights into this area and His capacity as an author are well known. Brilliant book although it takes some time getting through it.

This is a comprehensive text and an excellent guide for those implementing agile across the enterprise. However, it must be supplemented with another book by the same author on Scaling Software Agility.Both of them combined together make for a solid understanding of the challenges of scaling and the recommended solutions and practices.The appendices and the various sample templates are quite helpful!Sincerely,Murali

Great book. Would tecommend

Must read if scaling using SAFe