Challenges in Aligning Requirements Engineering and Verification in a Large-Scale Industrial Context

Sabaliauskaite, Giedre; Loconsole, Annabella; Engström, Emelie; Unterkalmsteiner, Michael; Regnell, Björn; Runeson, Per; Gorschek, Tony; Feldt, Robert

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-14192-8_14

Cited by 33 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The results reported in this paper are based on semi-structured interviews of 90 minutes each with 30 practitioners from six different software companies, comprising a wide range of people with experience from different roles relating to RE and VV. This paper extends on preliminary results of identifying the challenges faced by one of the companies included in our study (Sabaliauskaite 2010). In this paper, we report on the practices and challenges of all the included companies based on a full analysis of all the interview data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…This weak alignment of RE and work that is divided and distributed among engineers within a company or project poses a risk of producing a product that does not satisfy business and/or client expectations . In particular, weak alignment between RE and VV may lead to a number of problems that affect the later project phases such as non-verifiable requirements, lower product quality, additional cost and effort required for removing defects (Sabaliauskaite 2010). Furthermore, Jones et al (2009) identified three other alignment related problems found to affect independent testing teams, namely uncertain test coverage, not knowing whether changed software behaviour is intended, and lack of established communication channels to deal with issues and questions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges and practices in aligning requirements with verification and validation: a case study of six companies

et al. 2013

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Weak alignment of requirements engineering (RE) with verification and validation(VV) may lead to problems in delivering the required products in time with the right quality. For example, weak communication of requirements changes to testers may result in lack of verification of new requirements and incorrect verification of old invalid requirements, leading to software quality problems, wasted effort and delays. However, despite the serious implications of weak alignment research and practice both tend to focus on one or the other of RE or VV rather than on the alignment of the two. We have performed a multi-unit case study to gain insight into issues around aligning RE and VV by interviewing 30 practitioners from 6 software developing companies, involving 10 researchers in a flexible research process for case studies. The results describe current industry challenges and practices in aligning RE with VV, ranging from quality of the individual RE and VV activities, through tracing and tools, to change control and sharing a common understanding at strategy, goal and design level. The study identified that human aspects are central, i.e. cooperation and communication, and that requirements engineering practices are a critical basis for alignment. Further, the size of an organisation and its motivation for applying alignment practices, e.g. external enforcement of traceability, are variation factors that play a key role in achieving alignment. Our results provide a strategic roadmap for practitioners improvement work to address alignment challenges. Furthermore, the study provides a foundation for continued research to improve the alignment of RE with VV.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and practices in aligning requirements with verification and validation: a case study of six companies

et al. 2013

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“…However, the three most frequently reported domains are large industrial domains: automotive industry (15 studies), telecommunication and mobile devices (11 studies), and avionics (6 studies). Five studies, [6], [5], [43], [44], and [45], reported challenges out of which 62 individual challenges were extracted. The challenges could be grouped into eight categories for which the categories of [43] were used.…”

Section: Domains Benefits and Challenges (Rq3)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Five studies, [6], [5], [43], [44], and [45], reported challenges out of which 62 individual challenges were extracted. The challenges could be grouped into eight categories for which the categories of [43] were used. The categories are: organization and process related challenges, people related challenges, tool related challenges, RE related challenges, ST related challenges, change management related challenges, traceability related challenges, and metrics related challenges.…”

Section: Domains Benefits and Challenges (Rq3)mentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do We Know about Alignment of Requirements Engineering and Software Testing?

Karhapää

Haghighatkhah

Oivo

2017

Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering

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Context:The alignment of different software engineering activities for coordinated functioning and optimized product development is of great importance, particularly in industrialscale development. The link between intermediate activities has been researched extensively, but the link between requirements engineering (RE) and software testing (ST) is a relatively less explored area. Objective: The objective of this study is to aggregate, structure, and classify all existing research regarding alignment of RE and ST published by the end of 2015. Method: We conducted a systematic mapping study (SMS) and aggregated all studies relevant to our scope. The primary studies are analyzed in terms of publication trend, focus area, i.e., how alignment is supported, the application domain and benefits and challenges, methodological data, and scientific rigor and industrial relevance. Results: There is a growing interest towards the topic. Several different techniques have been identified to improve RE and ST alignment. Test generation from requirements specification has received most attention. Alignment of RE and ST is particularly important for large safety-critical domains. While many challenges have been reported, the supporting evidence for benefits is scarce. Frameworks/methods/techniques is the most frequent contribution type. Solution proposal and evaluation research were the most frequently applied research type. Case study research was the most frequently applied research method, however, almost half of the studies did not clearly report any research method. Conclusion: Despite the numerous approaches that are proposed, it is not clear what approach is suitable in what context and why. To support industry in RE and ST alignment, guidelines and tool support are needed. The supporting evidence for claimed benefits is very limited. Overall, the research area is in its early stages and an increase in both the number and rigor of empirical studies are required.

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“…This challenge relates to a range of issues including organization, process, people, tools, requirements changes, traceability and measurements (Bjarnason 2014, Sabaliauskaite 2010). Alignment methods have been studied from the perspective of linking information between people and/or documentation using mechanisms of varying formalism and complexity (Unterkalmsteiner 2014).…”

Section: Requirements Engineering and Test (Ret) Alignmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-case study of agile requirements engineering and the use of test cases as requirements

Bjarnason

Unterkalmsteiner

Borg

et al. 2016

Information and Software Technology

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Challenges in Aligning Requirements Engineering and Verification in a Large-Scale Industrial Context

Cited by 33 publications

References 13 publications

Challenges and practices in aligning requirements with verification and validation: a case study of six companies

Challenges and practices in aligning requirements with verification and validation: a case study of six companies

What Do We Know about Alignment of Requirements Engineering and Software Testing?

A multi-case study of agile requirements engineering and the use of test cases as requirements

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