Winbook
Process Implications of using Social Networking
based Tools for Requirements Engineering
Nupul Kukreja
Annual Research Review
6th March 2012
3/6/2012
ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)
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Agenda
Winbook
Social
Networking
& Email
Theory- W
User Stories
Requirement
Specifications
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Software Requirement Specifications
(SRS)
The true 3D view
SRS - in 2D
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Too much detail
and too much
to capture
Delegate – Let’s create more communication overhead 
ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)
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Change Management & SRS?
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Along came a
Story
User Stories
SRS
What we thought…
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What was actually intended…
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The User Story – 3Cs
A promissory
note of intent
Discussion & clarification of
intent (a.k.a requirement)
Card
Conversation
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Lightweight
ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)
Acceptance Tests
Confirmation
Ecstasy
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Theory-W
Customer
Dr. Boehm
Developer
As a team discuss what will
make each of you “win”
(a.k.a. win conditions)
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You can think of requirements
as stakeholder negotiated win
conditions!!
Identify any issues and come up
with options to resolve them
ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)
Reach a mutual
consensus and move
forward
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(WinWin Equilibrium)
Let’s see what the other humans were up to…
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Social Networking and Email
‘click’ to ‘like’
(agreement)
Poke
(no real value)
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facebook
Gmail
Commenting – having a
casual asynchronous
conversation
ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)
Organizing emails using
color-coded labels
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Putting It All Together
Facebook
Winbook
Gmail
Theory - W
Requirement
Specifications
User Stories
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Winbook
• A collaborative, social networking based tool for
requirements brainstorming…
• …with requirements organization using colorcoded 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
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ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)
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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 email 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
email communication
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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
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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
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ARR '12: USC-CSSE (c)
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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
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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
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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
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Thank You
&
See you at the Winbook Workshop at 4 pm
Q&A
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