What Industry Wants from Requirements Engineers in China?

Abstract

Background] Publications on the professional occupation of Requirements Engineering (RE) reported on market demands for both RE and non-RE qualifications and indicated the state-of-the-practice of RE roles in industry. However, prior research was not from the perspective of the RE area in the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK). Nor, they shed light on the industry needs of RE professionals in China. [Aims] This paper focused on RE-specific tasks and skills sought after in China, from the perspective of RE activities elaborated in SWEBOK. [Method] Using an empirical qualitative research method, we selected and analyzed 535 job ads from China's two largest job portals. Job titles and descriptions of these ads were analyzed to uncover RErelevant responsibilities in the categories of RE activities in SWEBOK as well as RE skills. [Results] We identified the qualifications, experience and skills demanded by Chinese employers. Specifically, we reported 23 RE tasks demanded in the 535 job ads, from the perspective of SWEBOK RE activities. [Conclusion] Our findings reveal that in China's job market, 'requirements engineer' is explicitly used as a title of job ads. Plus, around 78% of the selected job positions want the employees to perform tasks in requirements elicitation. Editing requirements specification is the most in-demand

The Impact of a Skill-Driven Model on Scrum Teams in Software Projects: A Catalyst for Digital Transformation

“…On the one hand, keyword searches to find related job posts were mentioned in two studies. The keywords found in the literature were used to conduct the automatic search in the T-Net portal [64], while the other research used four keywords derived from work experiences based on the authors and descriptions of the role [65]. On the other hand, the data were collected using predefined search criteria to collect software-related advertisements [49].…”

“…The sample size was calculated using an online tool by adding the LinkedIn estimated interested population size as 3689, where the confidence level and margin of error were set as 95% and 3%, respectively. In the literature, two studies were found to use the same method to calculate the sample size [49,65]. The sample size was generated as 828 but there were 900 sample data collected, as per Table 3.…”

Identifying the Needs of Electric Power Industry through Online Job Ads: A Mixed-methods Approach

“…The market appetite of Requirement Engineers (RE) is explored across three countries Netherlands, Canada and China, in the year 2015, 2017 and 2019 respectively, where job ads analysis is applied [12][13][14]. All three studies adopt a similar empirical research method that collects a wide range of RE position ads, selects a relevant data set, and then apply coding, analysis and synthesis to the qualitative data.…”

“…The 2017 Canadian study adopted a two-round selection workflow of the collected job ads, where the first round of selection is by job title and overview, the second round by job responsibility, and lastly removing duplications [13]. The 2019 Chinese study highlights a pilot data selection on a 160 job ads sample, where author 1 and author 2 both select the relevant jobs from the 160 job ads respectively and compare the results, based on a 90%+ consensus and the selection criteria is verbally agreed between the authors, which has increased the credibility of the data selection [14]. [12][13][14] analyzed tasks and skills in groups according to the data, and rankings of skills are drawn out from the job ads, interpreted and compared in detail.…”

“…The 2019 Chinese study highlights a pilot data selection on a 160 job ads sample, where author 1 and author 2 both select the relevant jobs from the 160 job ads respectively and compare the results, based on a 90%+ consensus and the selection criteria is verbally agreed between the authors, which has increased the credibility of the data selection [14]. [12][13][14] analyzed tasks and skills in groups according to the data, and rankings of skills are drawn out from the job ads, interpreted and compared in detail. Bar charts are frequently used to present the top listed skills and RE competency.…”