A requirements engineering framework for integrated systems development for the construction industry

Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) systems are computer environments through which collaborative working can be undertaken. Although many CIC systems have been developed to demonstrate the communication and collaboration within the construction projects, the uptake of CICs by the industry is still inadequate. This is mainly due to the fact that research methodologies of the CIC development projects are incomplete to bridge the technology transfer gap. Therefore, defining comprehensive methodologies for the development of these systems and their effective implementation on real construction projects is vital. Requirements Engineering (RE) can contribute to the effective uptake of these systems because it drives the systems development for the targeted audience. This paper proposes a requirements engineering approach for industry driven CIC systems development. While some CIC systems are investigated to build a broad and deep contextual knowledge in the area, the EU funded research project, DIVERCITY (Distributed Virtual Workspace for Enhancing Communication within the Construction Industry), is analysed as the main case study project because its requirements engineering approach has the potential to determine a framework for the adaptation of requirements engineering in order to contribute towards the uptake of CIC systems

Complementing Measurements and Real Options Concepts to Support Inter-iteration Decision-Making in Agile Projects

Agile software projects are characterized by iterative and incremental development, accommodation of changes and active customer participation. The process is driven by creating business value for the client, assuming that the client (i) is aware of it, and (ii) is capable to estimate the business value, associated with the separate features of the system to be implemented. This paper is focused on the complementary use of measurement techniques and concepts of real-option-analysis to assist clients in assessing and comparing alternative sets of requirements. Our overall objective is to provide systematic support to clients for the decision-making process on what to implement in each iteration. The design of our approach is justified by using empirical data, published earlier by other authors

How Do Real Options Concepts Fit in Agile Requirements Engineering?

Agile requirements engineering is driven by creating business value for the client and heavily involves the client in decision-making under uncertainty. Real option thinking seems to be suitable in supporting the client’s decision making process at inter-iteration time. This paper investigates the fit between real option thinking and agile requirements engineering. We first look into previously published experiences in the agile software engineering literature to identify (i) ‘experience clusters’ suggesting the ways in which real option concepts fit into the agile requirements process and (ii) ‘experience gaps’ and under-researched agile requirements decision-making topics which require further empirical studies. Furthermore, we conducted a cross-case study in eight agile development organizations and interviewed 11 practitioners about their decision-making process. The results suggest that options are almost always identified, reasoned about and acted upon. They are not expressed in quantitative terms, however, they are instead explicitly or implicitly taken\ud into account during the decision-making process at interiteration time

Investigating Secure Agile Requirements Engineering Practices in Software Development

The aim of this research study was to assess Agile RE practices in the South African software development industry and investigate secure Agile RE initiatives towards developing secure products. This qualitative research study was contextualized in seventeen South African software development companies. The researchers used structured interviews and document reviews as the primary data collection instruments. Qualitative data was analyzed inductively using content analysis. Emanating from the research were recommendations to guide a regular software developer on good Agile RE practices. The study concluded that although Agile Software Development is practiced in the South African software industry, there needs to be stricter adherences to the Agile Manifesto and Agile Security Manifesto in requirements engineering

Contribution to Software Development Method based on Generalized Requirement Approach

Requirements’ gathering is one of the first steps in the software development process. Gathering business requirements, when the final product requirements are dictated by a known client, can be a difficult process. Even if the client knows their own business best, often their idea about a new business product is obscure, and described by general terms that contribute very much to common misunderstandings among the participants. Business requirement verification when the requirements are gathered using text and graphics can be a slow, error-prone, and expensive process. Misunderstandings and omitted requirements cause the need for revisions and increase project costs and delays. This research work proposes a new approach to the business software development process and is focused on the client’s understanding of how the business software development process works as well as a demonstration of the business requirement practices during requirement negotiation process. While the current software development process validates the business requirement at the end of the development process, this method implementation enables business requirement validation during the requirement negotiation phase. The process of the business requirement negotiation is guided by a set of predefined questions. These questions are guidelines for specifying a sufficient level of requirement details for generating executable code that is able to demonstrate each requirement. Effective implementation of the proposed method requires employment of the GRA Framework. Besides providing guidelines for requirement specification, the Framework shall create executable and provide the test environment for a requirement demonstration. This dissertation implements an example framework that is built around a central repository. Stored within the repository is the data collected during the requirement negotiations process. Access to the repository is managed by a Web interface that enables a collaborative and paperless environment. The result is that the data is stored in one place and updates are reflected to the stakeholders immediately. The executable code is generated by the Generator, a module that provides general programming units that are able to create source code files, databases, SQL statements, classes and methods, navigation menus, and demo applications, all from the data stored in the data repository. The generated software can then be used for the business requirement demonstration. This method assumes that any further development process is built around the requirements repository, which can provide continuous tracking of implementation changes. Besides readily documenting, tracking, and validating the requirements, this method addresses multiple requirement management syndromes such as the insufficient requirements description details provision, the IKIWISI (“I’ll know it when I see it”) Syndrome, the Yes, But Syndrome (“That is not exactly what I mean”), and the Undiscovered Ruins Syndrome (“Now that I see it, I have another requirement to add”).

Requirements elicitation techniques for software development: a systematic review of literature

Introduction: Requirements elicitation (RE) is a difficult task in which there are issues related to information ambiguity, incomplete and inconsistent data. It seeks to discover and understand the users' problems and needs. The success of software development depends on the correct elicitation of requirements, and its quality is influenced by the techniques used.  This research aims to identify the RE techniques most cited in the literature of software development projects within this context. Method: a systematic literature review was carried out, which analyzed 61 articles from the Scopus database. Results: We identified the 10 RE techniques most cited in the literature. The ranking of these techniques showed that those obtained by stakeholders' groups' involvement were the least mentioned. Conclusions: the research identified the opportunity and relevance for developing a descriptive or confirmatory analysis of RE techniques based on the interaction between groups of users and members of the software development team.Introdução: A elicitação de requisitos (ER) é uma tarefa difícil na qual é necessário lidar com ambiguidade de informações, dados incompletos e inconsistentes. Ela busca descobrir e entender o real problema e as necessidades dos usuários. O sucesso do desenvolvimento de software depende da elicitação correta dos requisitos, e a qualidade deles é influenciada pelas técnicas usadas. Dentro deste contexto, o objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar as técnicas de ER mais citadas na literatura em projetos de desenvolvimento de software. Método: Foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura, que analisou 61 artigos da base de dados Scopus. Resultados: Foram identificadas as 10 técnicas de ER mais citadas na literatura. A classificação dessas técnicas mostrou que aquelas obtidas pelo envolvimento de grupos de stakeholders foram as menos citadas. Conclusão: A pesquisa identificou a oportunidade e relevância para o desenvolvimento de pesquisa acadêmica descritiva ou confirmatória sobre técnicas de ER baseadas na interação entre grupos de usuários e membros da equipe de desenvolvimento de software

An integration of traditional project management principles into Agile software development methodologies.

Master of Commerce in Information Systems & Technology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2016.A large amount of money and effort has been invested by companies into establishing their project management (PM) environment and processes which follow the classical phased approach where requirements are defined upfront and fixed. However organisations also desire to react more quickly to new global challenges and to the changing business environment. These business requirements then result in the failure of these classical approaches to PM. There is therefore a need to enhance the current PM environment so that it is more adoptive to changes in the business environment. As a result of these changes in the business landscape agile software development methodologies (ASDM) have acquired a lot of popularity in the software development community. This popularity is being driven by their dynamic nature and the notion that user requirements do not have to be fully specified in the initial phases of the development process. This has resulted in the improvement in success levels of information systems (IS) projects that have made use of an ASDM. A shift to ASDM can increase the success rate of IS projects and mitigate some issues that are typical for heavy weight methods. Good examples can be found in the case studies (Balada, 2013; Raithatha, 2007), where agile methods were successfully used in software development projects of all sizes and complexity. However introducing ASDM for large and complex projects particularly in large enterprises can introduce a number of challenges (Thamhain, 2014). While agile principles foster great flexibility and agility in changing environments, they are very difficult to realize in larger projects that require more execution formality and discipline to deal with the specific complexities (Waardenburg & Vliet, 2013). In order to address these problems, the current study investigates the problem of integrating Traditional Project Management (TPM) techniques into the development of large scale IS projects in large enterprises with complex IT landscapes that make use of AM. This study followed a hybrid approach combining both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Data collection entailed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The sampling strategy that was used was purposive sampling. A phenomenographic approach was used to obtain an insight into the experience of software development (SD) by software practitioners who made use of ASDM. The qualitative data elicited from this phase of the study was analysed thematically to identify aspects of AM that had a pivotal influence on software practitioners’ perspective on ASDM. A substantive component of this phenomenographic incursion was to establish whether there was some form of resonance between ASDM and PM or whether these methodologies were diametrically opposite to one another. The objective of the qualitative component of the study was to obtain sufficient information to enable the development of a model for SD that integrated the principles of PM into ASDM. This phase of the study was followed-up by a quantitative phase that was underpinned by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) in order to ascertain software practitioners’ acceptance of the proposed model (referred to as the Agile-Project Management Model (APMM)) The results of the UTAUT-based acceptance test indicate that the proposed APMM received a high acceptance rate by the software practitioners who constituted the main subjects of the current study