Prioritizing Critical Success Factors of Requirements Engineering using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Requirements engineering is not as straightforward as asking stakeholders what they want the information systems to do. In most cases, their vision tends to be limited by the status quo. Eliciting a complete set of requirements that fulfil every gap and withstand scrutiny during validation is challenging. Hence, it is important to consider various factors influencing the success of requirements engineering. This paper identifies and prioritizes multiple critical success factors of requirements engineering using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The initial model was developed from literature review and validated using evidence from an empirical study. Quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire and then analyzed to rank the success criteria and critical success factors. The results show that the user satisfaction is the most important success criterion, while the clear definition of project scopes and goals is the most critical factor for the success of requirements engineering

Requirements engineering current practice and capability in small and medium software development enterprises in New Zealand

This paper presents research on current industry practices with respect to requirements engineering as implemented within software development companies in New Zealand. A survey instrument is designed and deployed. The results are analysed and compared against what is internationally considered "best practice" and previous New Zealand and Australian studies. An attempt is made to assess the requirements engineering capability of New Zealand companies using both formal and informal frameworks.Comment: Proceedings of the 9th ACIS Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management & Applications (SERA 2011

Intelligent life-oriented design solution space selection

Consideration of design specifications is a vital part of the product design process. When design specifications are met, not only is customer satisfaction increased, but product development times and costs are reduced through less iteration. Product quality is also likely to be higher if these specifications are systematically addressed. However, focusing on the functionality specifications of the product is not enough. For the product to be really successful, design engineers have to take into account the specifications for the whole product life cycle, not only those for the use phase. This means that fabrication and assembly specifications, product servicing, product retirement and other specifications of the product from conception to grave should also be taken into account. Traditional CAD tools tend to provide support for the solution phase of the design process, with the design specifications being overlooked. This is a major limitation of these tools given the vital importance of considering design specifications during the design process. Due to this, specifications management is still very paper-based and is kept separate from the actual solution generation as there is no way for the designer to know, via traditional CAD tools, whether a given specification is satisfied in the solution being developed unless it is manually checked each time the question arises. What engineering designers do in practice is they start off with reading the design specifications from the Product Design Specification (PDS), then move on to generate a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) chart to convert the customer ‘wants’ into technical specifications, then start to take decisions based on what has been stored in their memories from the PDS and QFD [Grech 2009]. Hence, in practice, it is quite difficult to trace whether the design solution satisfies the design specifications or not. [Excerpt]peer-reviewe

Why and How to Balance Alignment and Diversity of Requirements Engineering Practices in Automotive

In large-scale automotive companies, various requirements engineering (RE) practices are used across teams. RE practices manifest in Requirements Information Models (RIM) that define what concepts and information should be captured for requirements. Collaboration of practitioners from different parts of an organization is required to define a suitable RIM that balances support for diverse practices in individual teams with the alignment needed for a shared view and team support on system level. There exists no guidance for this challenging task. This paper presents a mixed methods study to examine the role of RIMs in balancing alignment and diversity of RE practices in four automotive companies. Our analysis is based on data from systems engineering tools, 11 semi-structured interviews, and a survey to validate findings and suggestions. We found that balancing alignment and diversity of RE practices is important to consider when defining RIMs. We further investigated enablers for this balance and actions that practitioners take to achieve it. From these factors, we derived and evaluated recommendations for managing RIMs in practice that take into account the lifecycle of requirements and allow for diverse practices across sub-disciplines in early development, while enforcing alignment of requirements that are close to release.Comment: 19 page

A qualitative study on best practices and process of eliciting unambiguous quality attributes in scrum-based projects

Software quality is very crucial for users’ satisfaction and software success in the market. Recent studies found some ambiguous software quality attributes that may lead to low-quality software, and lack of elicitation practices in projects that apply Agile Software Development (ASD) methodology especially Scrum. However, current ASD methodologies, systematic literature reviews and surveys did not provide explanation of the necessary elicitation practices. Therefore, this qualitative study was essential to achieve two objectives: exploring the best practices and identifying process of eliciting unambiguous quality attributes in Scrum-based projects. The study used qualitative approach in which data was collected via interviewing eight experienced software practitioners from India and documents analysis that explains documentation of quality attributes in Scrum. For data analysis, the thematic analysis method was used for analysing interviews scripts and documents. The findings resulted in three initial themes that represent three steps in the elicitation process and six sub-themes that represent the elicitation practices. The first step is proactive exposure to quality attributes which consists of two practices: understanding software scope and envisaging potential quality attributes. The second step is mutual learning discussion which consists of two practices: ameliorating technical knowledge of customers and users and compiling details of quality attributes. The third step is verifying common understanding which consists of two practices: utilization of visual artefacts and documentation of quality attributes. The contribution of the study provides an extension to ASD body of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of disambiguation of terminologies in software domain, simplifying technical terms, representing reusable software artefacts, showing similar software, drawing mock-up and developing proof of concept in eliciting unambiguous quality attributes. Furthermore, the findings accentuate practical contributions to the software developers such as reducing effort, time and cost of designing and construction of software

A reutilização de requisitos no desenvolvimento e adaptação de produtos de software

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores. 2006. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Port

Contribuições para o desenvolvimento de sistemas de informação na saúde : aplicação na área da hemofilia

Doutoramento em Gestão IndustrialNuma era caracterizada pela Sociedade da Informação, o sector da saúde é talvez um dos que menos tem beneficiado das vantagens oferecidas pelas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TICs) a nível da gestão de informação clínica. Recorrendo a uma análise mais exaustiva, constata-se ainda que as patologias caracterizadas como doenças raras, e pela especificidade da informação que as caracteriza, são, naturalmente, as mais afectadas por este défice. Mas se por um lado a necessidade de promover aplicações de TICs no sector da saúde, particularmente através da adopção de Sistemas de Gestão de Informação Clínica (SGIC) é, actualmente, uma realidade com uma tendência crescente; por outro, o número de projectos que falham nesta área devido à falta de consideração dos aspectos humanos e outros não tecnológicos ao longo do ciclo de desenvolvimento, não é desprezável. É neste âmbito que se enquadra a presente tese de doutoramento, tendo como objectivos propor um SGIC na área da hemofilia (hemo@care) para um hospital localizado na zona centro do país e, com base na compreensão das questões críticas envolvidas no processo de desenvolvimento daquela solução, propor uma metodologia de desenvolvimento de SIs com aplicação no domínio da saúde. Para além daqueles, e uma vez que o estudo foi realizado em estreita colaboração com o Serviço de Hematologia do Centro Hospitalar de Coimbra (SH_CHC), fez também parte dos objectivos desta tese a extensão do estudo à comunidade de pacientes com hemofilia a nível nacional, não só no sentido de validar as funcionalidades disponibilizadas pelo sistema hemo@care, como também contribuir para a base de criação de um sistema de Registo Nacional de Pacientes Hemofílicos (RNPH), que Portugal espera há cerca de três décadas.Although we live in an age marked by Information Society, healthcare industry has not benefited as much as other industries from the advantages of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) concerning the management of clinical information. Moreover, pathologies characterized as rare diseases and with specific information needs are obviously the most affected by this insufficiency. On the one hand, the necessity to promote the ICTs application to the healthcare industry, particularly through the adoption of Clinical Information Management Systems (CIMS), is currently an emergent reality; on the other hand, the number of projects that fail in this area due to the lack of consideration of human and others non-technological issues throughout the development process, is not negligible. In this context, this work aims to propose a CIMS in the area of the haemophilia care (hemo@care), as well as to propose a methodology for the development of healthcare industry information systems. As this work was carried out in cooperation with the Haematology Service of the Central Hospital of Coimbra (SH_CHC), the extension of the study to the community of patients with haemophilia at a national level was included as an objective, not only to validate the functionality of the hemo@care, but also to contribute to the creation of a National Haemophilia Patient Registry (NHPR) system, long due in Portugal