Annals of Computer Science and Information Systems, Volume 11

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15439/2017F387

Citation: Proceedings of the 2017 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, M. Ganzha, L. Maciaszek, M. Paprzycki (eds). ACSIS, Vol. 11, pages 1189–1198 (2017)

Full text

Abstract. A significant number of techniques dedicated to requirements specification and documentation is described in the available sources. As there is no purpose to use all of them, a selection has to be made, taking into consideration the context of a given software project, for example its size, usage of agile approach or stakeholders' technical competency. This paper is intended to provide guidelines for such selection. We reviewed several sources (mainly industrial standards) to identify the general approach to requirements specification and specific techniques they recommend for this purpose. We also proposed a set of attributes describing project's context. Then, we conducted a survey study involving 42 Polish IT industry professionals, asking them to select techniques applicable to different projects. The survey was followed by two interviews with exerienced business analysts to interpret its results. The main contribution of the paper are selection recommendations based on results of survey and interviews.

References

1. ISO/IEC/IEEE, “Systems and software engineering - Life cycle pro-cesses - Requirements engineering” ISO/IEC/IEE, Standard 29148-2011, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1109/ieeestd.2011.6146379
2. International Institute of Business Analysis, “A guide to the business analysis body of knowledge (BABOK Guide)” ver. 3, 2015.
3. R. N. Charette, “Why software fails”, IEEE Spectrum vol. 42, no. 9, 2005, pp. 42-49, https://doi.org/10.1109/mspec.2005.1502528
4. K. Wiegers, J. Beatty, “Software requirements”, 3rd ed., Microsoft Press, 2013, ISBN: 978-0735679665.
5. B. Davey, K. Parker, “Requirements elicitation problems: A literature analysis”, Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, vol. 12, 2015, pp. 71-82.
6. IEEE, “IEEE Recommended Practice for Software Requirements Specifications”, IEEE Standard 830-1998, 1998, https://doi.org/10.1109/ieeestd.1998.88286
7. IEEE, “IEEE Guide for Developing System Requirements Specifications”, IEEE Standard 1233-1998, 1998, https://doi.org/10.1109/ieeestd.1998.88826
8. Requirements Engineering Qualifications Board, “REQB CPRE Foundation Level syllabus”, ver 2.1, 2014.
9. International Requirements Engineering Board, “IREB CPRE Foundation level syllabus”, ver. 2.2, 2015.
10. Project Management Institute, “Business analysis for practitioners. A practice guide”, 2015.
11. K. Pohl, “Requirements engineering: fundamentals, principles, and techniques”, Springer Publishing Company, 2010, ISBN: 978-3-642-12577-5.
12. M. dos Santos Soares, D. Cioquetta, “Analysis of techniques for documenting user requirements”, In Proc. of Computational Science and Its Applications (ICCSA 2012), 2012, pp. 16-28, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31128-4_2
13. L. Jiang, A. Eberlein, B. Far, M. Mousavi, “A methodology for the selection of requirements engineering techniques”, Software & Systems Modeling, vol. 7, no. 3, 2008, pp. 303-328, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-007-0055-y
14. A. M. Hickey, A. M. Davis, “Elicitation technique selection: how do experts do it?” In Proc. IEEE 11th Requirements Engineering Conf., 2003, pp. 169-178, https://doi.org/10.1109/icre.2003.1232748
15. L. O. Lobo, J. D. Arthur, “An objectives-driven process for selecting methods to support requirements engineering activities”, In Proc. 29th Annual IEEE/NASA Software Engineering Workshop, 2005, pp. 118-130, https://doi.org/10.1109/sew.2005.18
16. Z. Zhang, “Effective requirements development - A comparison of requirements elicitation techniques” In: Software Quality Management XV: Software Quality in the Knowledge Society, British Computer Society, 2007, pp. 225-240.
17. S. Wellsandt, K. Hribernik, K. Thoben, “Qualitative comparison of requirements elicitation techniques that are used to collect feedback information about product use”, In Proc. 24th CIRP Design Conf., 2014, pp. 212-217, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2014.03.121
18. M. Vestola, “A comparison of nine basic techniques for requirements prioritization”, Helsinki University of Technology, 2010.
19. H. Khan, I. Asghar, S. Ghayyur, M. Raza, “An empirical study of software requirements verification and validation techniques along their mitigation strategies” Asian Journal of Computer and Information Systems, vol. 3, no. 03, 2015.
20. F. Paetsch, A. Eberlein, F. Maurer, “Requirements engineering and agile software development”, In Proc. 12th IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies, 2003, pp. 308-313, https://doi.org/10.1109/enabl.2003.1231428
21. B. Ramesh, L. Cao, R. Baskerville, “Agile requirements engineering practices and challenges: an empirical study”, Information Systems Journal, vol. 20, no. 5, 2007, pp. 449-480, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2007.00259.x
22. L. Cao, B. Ramesh, “Agile requirements engineering practices: An empirical study”, IEEE Software, vol. 25, no. 1, 2008, pp. 60-67, https://doi.org/10.1109/ms.2008.1
23. E. Bjarnason, K. Wnuk, B. Regnell, “A case study on benefits and side-effects of agile practices in large-scale requirements engineering”, In 1st Workshop on Agile Requirements Engineering, 2011, pp. 3:1-3:5, https://doi.org/10.1145/2068783.2068786
24. I. Inayat, S. S. Salim, S. Marczak, M. Daneva, S. Shamshirband, “A systematic literature review on agile requirements engineering practices and challenges”, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 51, 2015, pp. 915-929, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.10.046
25. D. Dvir, S. Lipovetsky, A. Shenhar, A. Tishler, “In search of project classification: a non-universal approach to project success factors”, Research Policy, vol. 27, no. 9, 1998, pp. 915-935, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(98)00085-7
26. K. Frączkowski, A. Dabiński, M. Grzesiek, “Raport z Polskiego Badania Projektów IT 2010”, 2011. [Online] Available: http://pmresearch.pl/wp-content/downloads/raport_pmresearchpl.pdf, [Accessed: May 9th 2017]
27. V. Marinelli, P. A. Laplante, “Requirements engineering: the state of the practice revisited”, Technical Report, Penn State University, 2008.
28. A. Cockburn, “Writing effective use cases”, Addison Wesley, 2000, ISBN: 978-0201702255.
29. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318207441_FedCSIS_LADS_Req_Documentation_Techniques_report (Survey study report)