Winbook Nupul Kukreja Annual Research Review 6 th March 2012 Process Implications of using Social Networking based Tools for Requirements Engineering 3/6/20121ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Agenda Winbook Requirement Specifications User Stories Theory- W Social Networking & 3/6/20122ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Software Requirement Specifications (SRS) SRS - in 2D The true 3D view Too much detail and too much to capture Delegate – Let’s create more communication overhead 3/6/20123ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Change Management & SRS? 3/6/20124ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Along came a User Stories SRS Story What we thought…What was actually intended… 3/6/20125ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

The User Story – 3Cs Lightweight Ecstasy Card A promissory note of intent Conversation Discussion & clarification of intent (a.k.a requirement) Confirmation Acceptance Tests 3/6/20126ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

The Product Backlog A stack of user stories… How practitioners like to show it …basically, a prioritized list of requirements 3/6/20127ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

At World’s EndAt Project’s End Stories stashed away in a box OR…torn and thrown Or electronically stored if using a tool 3/6/20128ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Theory-W Customer Developer You can think of requirements as stakeholder negotiated win conditions!! As a team discuss what will make each of you “win” (a.k.a. win conditions) Identify any issues and come up with options to resolve them Reach a mutual consensus and move forward (WinWin Equilibrium) Dr. Boehm 3/6/20129ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Let’s see what the other humans were up to… 3/6/201210ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Social Networking and ‘click’ to ‘like’ (agreement) Poke (no real value) Commenting – having a casual asynchronous conversation facebookGmail Organizing s using color-coded labels 3/6/201211ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Putting It All Together User Stories Requirements Specifications Theory-W Facebook Gmail But just HOW can all this be combined? 3/6/201212ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Winbook Theory - W Requirement Specifications Putting It All Together User Stories Facebook Gmail 3/6/201213ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Winbook A collaborative, social networking based tool for requirements brainstorming… …with requirements organization using color- coded labels similar to Gmail… …to collaboratively decide and agree on software system requirements reaching win-win equilibrium (based on Theory-W)… …by keeping it short and simple like user stories! Most recent incarnation of the WinWin negotiation framework – substantially improves on WikiWinWin 3/6/201214ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Pre-Winbook Era User expectations (win conditions)were recorded using WikiWinWin – cumbersome to navigate and update Clients would rarely use it after first WinWin session Teams would create a System and Software Requirements Document (SSRD) based on the win conditions – maintaining traceability to win conditions Change management and synchronization overhead made teams only focus on the SSRD (falling back on communication) Requirements in the SSRD were back-referenced in the System and Software Architecture Document (SSAD) – another synchronization overhead Too much effort overhead with traceability to win conditions and keeping the project ‘value focused’ Extreme dissatisfaction expressed by student teams regarding WikiWinWin Teams failed to understand the value of WinWin negotiations – it was just something to do as per the syllabus Expectation inconsistencies within the team due to silo-ed/point-to-point communication 3/6/201215ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

The Winbook Era Experimentation of using social networking based paradigm for requirements engineering Teams can ‘post’ win-conditions to a shared Wall that is accessible to everyone For each win condition team members can raise issues, concerns or risks similar to ‘commenting’ on Facebook Similarly, teams could suggest options for resolving the issues Seamless signaling of ‘agreements’ – akin to clicking ‘Like’ on Facebook A one-stop halt for gathering requirements on a shared wall accessible and updateable by the whole team 3/6/201216ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Process Implications of Using Winbook Partially auto-generated SSRD with traceability to win conditions eliminating overhead Up-to-date rationale capture of stakeholders’ needs and sustained client renegotiation within the tool itself! Improved effectiveness of milestone reviews – clients more involved in definition and prioritization of win conditions Teams had better understanding of expectations and value propositions Better understanding of the ‘value focused’ mindset – leading to value based channelizing of project activities Color-coded equilibrium status kept everyone on the same page, faster 3/6/201217ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Process Implications (Cont’d) Eliminating the SSRD!! Various attributes (e.g. pre/post-conditions, priority) either captured in Winbook or SSAD – making SSRD redundant! Win conditions capture-able as user stories  Wall = Product backlog with added dimensions of issues and options! Institutional memory of the negotiation (i.e. WinWin equilibrium) captured and maintained throughout the course of the project – with very little overhead 3/6/201218ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Winbook – Evaluation & Feedback Clients expressed gratitude for such an easy to use framework that allowed for continual monitoring of the ‘commitment status’ of the team(s) Increased ‘agility’ and participation of stakeholders (clients) – especially in a distributed setting WinWin negotiations were ‘fun’ – students were hungry for more (sessions)! LADOT expressed interest in deploying Winbook internally for collaborative brainstorming Also adopted as part of project by major US Government organization for bridging gap between requirements and architecture 3/6/201219ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

Current Roadmap End-to-end tool for Value Based Requirements Elicitation and Management Capturing goals and benefits and linking ‘Win Conditions’ to them – facilitating goal oriented requirements engineering Capturing ‘Acceptance Tests’ for Win Conditions Visualization of ‘Work in Progress’ – similar to Kanban boards Built-in support for playing Planning Poker for estimating Business Value and Ease of Realization 3/6/201220ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)

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Thank You & See you at the Winbook Workshop at 4 pm Q & A 3/6/201223ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)