(2003-06-28) Guerrilla Software And Requirements

B Scott Andersen has a new blog about "Guerrilla Development". That has a bit of a Master Slave victim smell, but it's mostly an attempt at dealing with reality. His first main piece is about Requirements gathering, Product Management failures (as a source of Project Management failures), and the lack of clear vision at most companies. When I hear the words "effective product management" I think "Unicorn". I've heard lots of things about both; I've seen neither. Let's forget for a moment most of the things I've listed above. Forget about the market analysis, the bold leadership, and the ability to make difficult choices. Let's concentrate on the vision thing and the ability to instill that vision into others. An SRS (Software Requirements Specification) would be an ideal vehicle for this. Yet, I've never seen a product manager produce such a document. (I'm not sure the "vision" thing belongs in an SRS, but it belongs somewhere, and the SRS should be consistent with it.)