Combining Perceptions and Prescriptions in Requirements Engineering Process Assessment: An Industrial Case Study

Abstract

Abstract-Requirements engineering (RE) is a key discipline in software development and several methods are available to help assess and improve RE processes. However, these methods rely on prescriptive models of RE; they do not, like other disciplines within software engineering, draw directly on stakeholder perceptions and subjective judgments. Given this backdrop, we present an empirical study in RE process assessment. Our aim was to investigate how stakeholder perceptions and process prescriptions can be combined during assessments to effectively inform RE process improvement. We first describe existing methods for RE process assessment and the role played by stakeholder perceptions and subjective judgments in the software engineering and management literature. We then present a method that combines perceptions and prescriptions in RE assessments together with an industrial case study in which the method was applied and evaluated over a three-year period at TelSoft. The data suggest that the combined method led to a comprehensive and rich assessment and it helped TelSoft consider RE as an important and integral part of the broader engineering context. This, in turn, led to improvements that combined plan-driven and adaptive principles for RE. Overall, the combined method helped TelSoft move from Level 1 to Level 2 in RE maturity, and the employees perceived the resulting engineering practices to be improved. Based on these results, we suggest that software managers and researchers combine stakeholder perceptions and process prescriptions as one way to effectively balance the specificity, comparability, and accuracy of software process assessments.Index Terms-Process implementation and change, qualitative process analysis, requirements engineering process, software management, software process.

Naming the pain in requirements engineering: A design for a global family of surveys and first results from Germany

“…For those that improve their RE, we rely on the observations made by Staples et al [21] in the area of software process improvement. Large companies use assessments conducted by an own business unit or via external consultants, e.g., as part of a certification program (see also [22]). Small and medium-sized companies, however, do not have the resources to have separate improvement groups.…”

Building contextual ambidexterity in a software company to improve firm-level coordination

“…The collaboration was executed by the researchers, a steering committee of senior management from TelSoft, and several problem-solving teams. The different teams focused on specific innovation areas such as software process reengineering (Napier et al, 2008), requirements management (Napier et al, 2006(Napier et al, , 2009, and firm-level coordination (the focus of this paper). As elaborated in detail below, improvement of TelSoft's firm-level coordination led to establishment of a software coordination group (SCG) comprised of the Division President, the Vice President (VP) of Software, the Development Manager, and the Product Manager.…”

Evaluasi Kualitas Proses Rekayasa Kebutuhan Knowledge Acquistion in Automated Specification Menggunakan Model Concern of Requirement Engineering

“…Pada penelitian sebelumnya telah ada yang mengkombinasikan kategori penilaian induktif dan prespektif [6] untuk menilai sebuah proses rekayasa kebutuhan, ada juga yang melakukan survey terhadap 100 metode rekayasa kebutuhan yang ada [7], melakukan penilaian terhadap proses penggunaan ulang kebutuhan pada uji coba sistem ERP menggunakan metode induktif [8], dan juga ada yang mengusulkan sebuah metode penilaian prespektif berdasarkan Concern of Requirements Engineering (CORE) [9].…”