Distances between Requirements Engineering and Later Software Development Activities: A Systematic Map

Bjarnason, Elizabeth

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-37422-7_21

Cited by 17 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(80 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, our mapping study [3] revealed that distances between related software development areas, e.g. between requirements and testing, are largely unresearched both concerning the interaction between people and between artefacts [3]. This is so despite the potential for using the concept of distance to measure and evaluate the coverage and consistency between related artefacts, such as requirements specifications and test cases.…”

Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…These contradicting results indicate that there are additional undiscovered factors at play. Furthermore, our mapping study [3] revealed that distances between related software development areas, e.g. between requirements and testing, are largely unresearched both concerning the interaction between people and between artefacts [3].…”

Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have previously presented a framework of distances within software development, in particular related to requirements engineering [3]. Through a systematic mapping study thirteen types of distances were identified.…”

Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study [3] also provides an overview of the areas for which distances have been researched so far and identifies areas for which further research is needed. The most mature research was found on distances between people, i.e.…”

Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coordination and communication within software development [2] is affected by distances [3]. The effects of geographical, sociocultural and temporal distances are fairly well known and researched for globally distributed software development (GSD) [1] [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Alignment practices affect distances in software development: a theory and a model

Bjarnason

Smolander

Engström

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 3rd SEMAT Workshop on General Theories of Software Engineering

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Coordinating a software project across distances is challenging. Even without geographical and time zone distances, other distances within a project can cause communication gaps. For example, organisational and cognitive distances between product owners and development-near roles such as developers and testers can lead to weak alignment of the software and the business requirements. Applying good software development practices, known to enhance alignment, can alleviate these challenges. We present a theoretical model called the Gap Model of how alignment practices affect different types of distances. This model has been inductively generated from empirical data. We also present an initial version of a theory based on this model that explains, at a general level, how practices affect communication within a project by impacting distances between people, activities and artefacts. The presented results provide a basis for further research and can be used by software organisations to improve on software practice.

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Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Distance In Software Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Alignment practices affect distances in software development: a theory and a model

Bjarnason

Smolander

Engström

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 3rd SEMAT Workshop on General Theories of Software Engineering

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Communication in Teams - An Expression of Social Conflicts

Klünder

Schneider

Kortum

et al. 2016

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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The more members a team has, the more information needs to be shared with single team members or within the whole team. Sufficient information sharing is difficult to ensure, since a project leader will not be fully aware of all ongoing information and communication within the team. In software engineering, information flow is essential for project success. In each part of the process, information like requirements or design decisions needs to be communicated with appropriate persons. Neither missing nor wrong implemented requirements are desirable, since extra working hours or incomplete working results need to be paid. Therefore, the right amount of information sharing is highly desirable. To ensure this, communication is a mandatory requisite. Furthermore, knowing about social conflicts is suitable, since these influence the information flow. In an experiment with 34 student software projects, we collected data referring to internal team communication and mood. In these projects, we could show a correlation between chosen communication channels, social conflicts and mood. Since social conflicts foster an insufficient information flow, knowing about these helps software developing teams to reach higher quality and a higher customer satisfaction. motivated by the importance of information sharing within the project team, communication has been proven to be a determinant of project success [19]. In software developing teams, wrong or insufficiently transmitted requirements often cause wrong or not implemented parts of the software [27]. Therefore, insufficient communication can threaten project success. Otherwise, adequate communication can foster project success. Hence, a good working communication is desirable for all project members: The developer team that does not want to spend time on implementing unnecessary program code, the project leader who wants to complete the tasks, and lastly the customer who wants a successful project. But not only requirements need to be shared within the team. Also design decisions, customized standards, reports about bugs and many other information need to be transported to the relevant persons. As Stapel [30] pointed out, not only the intensity of communication, but also the chosen communication channel is important for transmitting the desired information. In the "Modes of Communication", Cockburn [5] rated different kind of communication channels by their effectiveness and richness. Among other characteristics like synchronicity, the perceptions addressed by the media channels are one factor for the grading. For example, meetings with face to face communication-in physical support with a white board-are the most effective way to communicate [1][5]. As teams often do not have the opportunity to meet regularly and since meetings often do not suffice for conveying the entire information at hand, other ways of information sharing need to be used. In practice, common alternatives are services like email, video chat, telephone or group and single chat. Schneider et al. [26] develo...

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The role of distances in requirements communication: a case study

Bjarnason

Sharp

2015

Requirements Eng

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Requirements communication plays a vital role in development projects in coordinating the customers, the business roles and the software engineers. Communication gaps represent a significant source of project failures and overruns. For example, misunderstood or uncommunicated requirements can lead to software that does not meet the customers' requirements, and subsequent low number of sales or additional cost required to redo the implementation. We propose that requirements engineering (RE) distance measures are useful for locating gaps in requirements communication and for improving on development practice. In this paper, we present a case study of one software development project to evaluate this proposition. Thirteen RE distances were measured including geographical and cognitive distances between project members, and semantic distances between requirements and testing artefacts. The findings confirm that RE distances impact requirements communication and project coordination. Furthermore, the concept of distances was found to enable constructive group reflection on communication gaps and improvements to development practices. The insights reported in this paper can provide practitioners with an increased awareness of distances and their impact. Furthermore, the results provide a stepping stone for further research into RE distances and methods for improving on software development processes and practices.

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Distances between Requirements Engineering and Later Software Development Activities: A Systematic Map

Cited by 17 publications

References 35 publications

Alignment practices affect distances in software development: a theory and a model

Alignment practices affect distances in software development: a theory and a model

Communication in Teams - An Expression of Social Conflicts

The role of distances in requirements communication: a case study

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