Requirements engineering for time-to-market projects

Adoption of the most suitable requirements engineering (RE) process and selection of the most appropriate RE techniques for a given project are challenging issues for industry. In order to alleviate the problems, a framework for RE process development (FRERE) was developed based on our research in the last six years. The overall architecture of the framework and a brief case study are presented in the paper. The framework addresses several core issues of the RE process: engineering issues, domain issues, characteristics of the software project, and issues of conformity to software process standards. FRERE consists of three parts: (1) The RE process knowledge base (REPKB) which contains RE process knowledge, (2) methodologies which provide guidance to develop a customized software process model in an iterative way; and (3) assessment models which provide information about the suitability of the newly developed RE process model for the software project under development.

The first argument presented is that if we have a clear understanding of the objectives of the requirements engineering (RE) process then we can identify what techniques we need. No single method or technique will be sufficient. The second argument is that a key objective of the RE process is to specify a system which will ultimately be successful. Three common types of failure are examined: process failure, expectation failure and interaction failure. The third argument is that if the causes of each type of failure can be described then we will be able to identify what techniques are needed to help us avoid failure. The five common causes are described: the requirements engineering process itself, human communication within requirements, knowledge development, documentation of requirements and management. A discussion of each cause is followed by a list of the RE techniques needed. The paper concludes with a 'wish list' of seventy requirements for RE techniques, and a brief discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the RE community in meeting those requirements.

Requirements Engineering (RE) has established itself as a software engineering discipline during the past decades. While researchers have been investigating the RE discipline with a plethora of empirical studies, attempts to systematically derive an empirically-based theory in context of the RE discipline have just recently been started. However, such a theory is needed if we are to define and motivate guidance in performing high quality RE research and practice. We aim at providing an empirical and valid foundation for a theory of RE, which helps software engineers establish effective and efficient RE processes. We designed a survey instrument and theory that has now been replicated in 10 countries world-wide. We evaluate the propositions of the theory with bootstrapped confidence intervals and derive potential explanations for the propositions. We report on the underlying theory and the full results obtained from the replication studies with participants from 228 organisations. Our results represent a substantial step forward towards developing an empirically-based theory of RE giving insights into current practices with RE processes. The results reveal, for example, that there are no strong differences between organisations in different countries and regions, that interviews, facilitated meetings and prototyping are the most used elicitation techniques, that requirements are often documented textually, that traces between requirements and code or design documents is common, requirements specifications themselves are rarely changed and that requirements engineering (process) improvement endeavours are mostly intrinsically motivated. Our study establishes a theory that can be used as starting point for many further studies for more detailed investigations. Practitioners can use the results as theory-supported guidance on selecting suitable RE methods and techniques.

This paper presents exploratory survey results on Requirements Engineering (RE) practices of some software development companies in Malaysia. The survey attempted to identify patterns of RE practices the companies are implementing. Information required for the survey was obtained through a survey, mailed self-administered questionnaires distributed to project managers and software developers who are working at software development companies operated across the country. The results showed that the overall adoption of the RE practices in these companies is strong. However, the results also indicated that fewer companies in the survey have use appropriate CASE tools or software to support their RE process and practices, define traceability policies and maintain traceability manual in their projects.

Requirements engineering (RE) process improvement methods typically work with explicit process models describing activities and document flow between the stakeholders involved, and with explicit document definitions. In complex, multi-project contexts, however, the RE process is better characterized as intertwining of design, negotiation, and sense-making. In the first part of This work, we present the concepts of a workshop-based RE process improvement technique suitable for a multi-project context. In the second part, we show the experiences made in an industrial case study conducted with Nokia smart traffic products. The major innovations of our approach are: (i) instead of a process model, an information model is created, which focuses solely on the responsibilities of stakeholders with regard to the major documents; (ii) instead of document details, only the major point of view of the documents is defined.

Software development requires intensive communication between the requirements engineers and software stakeholders, particularly during the Requirements Engineering (RE) phase. Therefore, the individuals' culture might influence both the RE process and the result. Our aims are to investigate the extend of cultural influences on the RE process, and to analyze how the RE process can be adapted to take into account cultural aspects. The model we present is based on Hofstede's cultural theory. The model was applied on a pilot case study in the context of the conservative Saudi Arabian culture. The results reveal 6 RE aspects and 10 cultural factors that have a large impact on the RE practice.

Expert system has the least focus on requirement engineering. In facts, requirement engineering is important to get all the requirements needed for an expert system. If the requirements do not meet the clients' needs, the expert system is considered fail although it works perfectly. Currently, there are a lot of studies proposing and describing the development of expert systems. However, they are focusing in a specific and narrow domain of problems. Also, the major concern of most researchers is the design issues of the expert system. Therefore, we emphasize on the very first step of success expert system development - requirement engineering. Hence, we are focusing in the requirement engineering techniques in order to present the most practical way to facilitate requirement engineering processes. In this paper, we analyze expert system attributes, requirement engineering processes in expert system developments and the possible techniques that can be applied to expert system developments. Next, we propose the most appropriate techniques for the expert system developments based on the analysis. From this paper, a set of techniques for expert system development will be provided.

The requirement engineering (RE) practice was implemented without knowing by IT Personnel. This RE framework design purposely to identify the RE practice that implemented during software project requirement in Malaysian Public Sector. We determine the software requirement system (SRS) flow from the initial interview. We have a list of IT Personnel RE practice experience for the software project from the pilot test. We identified the problem arise and the RE practice implemented from the actual survey. The RE practice that identify will validate by the IT expert in Malaysian Public Sector. We plan to developed standards, tools, and methods can help to improve the current practice. Our expectation is the practice that can be as a guideline to IT Personnel using RE practice during software project requirement.

Requirements engineering (RE) deals with the software requirements elicitation, validation and verification processes and implementation of elicited requirements. The RE process, for value-based software (VBS) development, is one of the highly complex and non-linear processes which mainly depends on the key stakeholders. VBS systems are extremely different from traditional systems due to their association with financial streams. There is a need of value-based RE practices. Stakeholders' analysis plays a vital role in the selection of critical stakeholders for RE phase in VBS development. Different stakeholders' identification and quantification (SIQ) approaches are presented by researchers in order to identify and quantify the stakeholders. The existing approaches are not uniform in terms of process activities and different stakeholders' attributes. Non-uniformity results in higher time consumption and higher complexity. The existing SIQ approaches are not suitable for current value-based RE practices. Hence, this research presents an intelligent decision support system for the VBS SIQP using stakeholder metrics and fuzzy logic. The data is finally divided into three clusters in order to select the highly prioritized stakeholders for VBS systems.

In global software development (GSD), teams from different geographies are involved in software development activities from requirement till management phase. There are many potential benefits associated with GSD environment such as development cost, round the clock development, accessibility to better skilled people and many others. Although, organizations are achieving the benefits of GSD but its challenging nature such as cultural and language differences, trust relationship, coordination and communication is introducing numerous challenges that cannot be ignored. These challenges are significantly influencing requirement engineering (RE) process in GSD. One of the reasons behind challenging nature of RE in GSD is varying situational contexts such as social, communication and cultural contexts, language, human, technical and management related contexts. This necessitate for a comprehensive framework that demonstrates the perspective of situational contexts. This study aims to review the existing situational RE frameworks, highlights the reported situational contexts and provide future research directions. The literature revealed that the situational contexts are commonly related to twelve categories that include stakeholders, organization, requirements, project, management, risk, culture, standard, task, communication, technique and methods, and innovation. The situational contexts related to these categories show the main standpoint of situational software development in GSD. These situational contexts are significant for improving competencies of the team members while performing RE process in GSD environment. This study also draws attention towards some imperative research directions for further studies in line of situational software engineering.

This paper describes empirical research into agile requirements engineering (RE) practices. Based on an analysis of data collected in 16 US software development organizations, we identify six agile practices. We also identify seven challenges that are created by the use of these practices. We further analyse how this collection of practices helps mitigate some, while exacerbating other risks in RE. We provide a framework for evaluating the impact and appropriateness of agile RE practices by relating them to RE risks. Two risks that are intractable by agile RE practices emerge from the analysis. First, problems with customer inability and a lack of concurrence among customers significantly impact agile development. Second, risks associated with the neglecting non‐functional requirements such as security and scalability are a serious concern. Developers should carefully evaluate the risk factors in their project environment to understand whether the benefits of agile RE practices outweigh the costs imposed by the challenges.

Usability and requirements engineering both provide means for discovering, analyzing, and fulfilling users' needs. In practice, it is difficult to manage and control user-centered design and system development processes separately. Based on a case study conducted in two software product companies, we have aimed to understand the role of usability specialists in the requirements engineering (RE) process. Our findings indicate that usability is still often seen as user interface design instead of a more comprehensive characteristic of a software product. Therefore, usability specialists had difficulties participating in early RE activities. To integrate usability as a natural part of the RE process, the usability teams have started to organize training in their companies. The main purpose of the training is to ensure that usability is not relying solely on the work of specialists but becomes a common responsibility for the whole product development organization.

The aim of this tutorial is to explain in an accessible manner the psychology of people in the context of misunderstandings, politics and social issues that affect software development. It focuses on user-stakeholder interaction techniques for analysis and interpretation of human behaviour, and how psychological knowledge can be used to improve the requirements engineering (RE) process as well as interpreting the implications of human motivations and values for requirements and software systems architecture. Soft issues, such as politics and people's feelings, are often cited as problems in the RE process and as key causes of system failure. It is clear from the RE literature that understanding user beliefs and values is vital for the success of software development. The London Ambulance service is a canonical example of system failure caused, in part, by inadequate understanding of ambulance crews' motivations, values of self esteem and autonomy, and the emotional reaction to lack of involvement in the requirements process, leading to technology failure.

The emergence of Systems of Systems (SoSs) and Systems of Systems Engineering (SoSE) is largely driven by global societal needs including energy-water-food nexus, population demographics, global climate, integrated transport, security and social activity. However, due to their scale, structural and functional complexity and emergent properties, these global spanning Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems are becoming increasingly complex and more difficult for current requirements engineering (RE) practices to handle. In this paper, we firstly introduce SoSE as an emerging discipline and key characteristics of SoSs. We then highlight the challenges that the RE discipline must respond to. We discuss some weaknesses of current RE techniques and approaches to cope with the complexity of SoSs. We then argue that there is a need for the global RE community to evolve current RE approaches and to develop new ways of thinking, new RE capabilities and possibly a new RE science as a key mechanism for addressing requirements engineering complexities posed by Systems of Systems. We then outline a requirements engineering perspective and research agenda that identifies 'top-10' research themes informed by a cluster of four Systems of Systems Engineering projects funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 research programme.

Because requirements engineering (RE) problems are widely acknowledged as having a major impact on the effectiveness of the software development process, Sommerville et al. have developed a requirements maturity model. However, research has shown that the measurement process within Sommerville's model is ambiguous, and implementation of his requirements maturity model leads to confusion. Hence, the objective of our research is to propose a new RE maturity measurement framework (REMMF) based on Sommerville's model and to provide initial validation of REMMF. The main purpose of proposing REMMF is to allow us to more effectively measure the maturity of the RE processes being used within organisations and to assist practitioners in measuring the maturity of their RE processes. In order to evaluate REMMF, two organisations implemented the measurement framework within their IT divisions, provided us with an assessment of their requirements process and gave feedback on the REMMF measurement process. The results show that our measurement framework is clear, easy to use and provides an entry point through which the practitioners can effectively judge the strengths and weakness of their RE processes. When an organisation knows where it is, it can more effectively plan for improvement.