Perception and enterprise communication networks to improve the requirements elicitation process

The requirements elicitation phase of software development projects is characterised by the intensity and importance of communication activities. Requirements elicitation is a traditional exploratory phase in which context is analysed and an abstraction is performed as a consequence. However, exploratory processes are characterised by a deep interaction with environmental factors. In this paper, we present a process for managing communication during the requirements elicitation phase. Our process would help get well-defined requirements by using knowledge inside organisations and a classification of requirements perception based on how environment is controlled by stakeholders. Our approach can be used to guide the elicitation process as well as to validate the requirements.Eje: Procesamiento Concurrente, Paralelo y DistribuidoRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Project Quality of Offshore Virtual Teams Engaged in Software Requirements Analysis: An Exploratory Comparative Study

The off-shore software development companies in countries such as India use a global delivery model in which initial requirement analysis phase of software projects get executed at client locations to leverage frequent and deep interaction between user and developer teams. Subsequent phases such as design, coding and testing are completed at off-shore locations. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in off-shoring even requirements analysis phase using computer mediated communication. We conducted an exploratory research study involving students from Management Development Institute (MDI), India and Marquette University (MU), USA to determine quality of such off-shored requirements analysis projects. Our findings suggest that project quality of teams engaged in pure off-shore mode is comparable to that of teams engaged in collocated mode. However, the effect of controls such as user project monitoring on the quality of off-shored projects needs to be studied further

An insight into the interplay between culture, conflict and distance in globally distributed requirements negotiations

© 2003 IEEE. There is an increasing interest in research addressing issues of global software development. Specifying software requirements is a communication-intensive collaborative activity that is increasingly performed across cultural, language and time zone boundaries. While inadequate communication significantly impacts the bridging of geographical distance between stakeholders, the cultural differences cannot be considered less significant. Findings from two global software development organizations enables us to present a model of impact of distance and the affected requirements activities due to problems of cultural diversity, inadequate communication, knowledge management and time differences. This evidence provides an important insight into the interplay between culture and conflict as well as the impact of distance on the ability to reconcile different viewpoints with regards to requirements and requirements processes

ELECTRONIC REQUIREMENTS NEGOTIATION – A LITERATURE SURVEY ON THE STATE-OF-THE-ART (23)

In the software development process, requirements negotiation is an essential part in which stakeholders jointly have to come to an agreement. Such a negotiation process is often conducted using information systems, which makes it an electronic requirements negotiation process. The aim of the current paper is to present the state-of-the-art in electronic requirements negotiations. We elicit the state-of-the-art by analysing relevant literature, extracting areas of current research, and describing the status quo of each area. The identified areas of research are foundations of electronic requirements negotiation, electronic requirements negotiation methodology, automation of electronic requirements negotiation, computer- mediated communication, and social communication

Perception and enterprise communication networks to improve the requirements elicitation process

The requirements elicitation phase of software development projects is characterised by the intensity and importance of communication activities. Requirements elicitation is a traditional exploratory phase in which context is analysed and an abstraction is performed as a consequence. However, exploratory processes are characterised by a deep interaction with environmental factors. In this paper, we present a process for managing communication during the requirements elicitation phase. Our process would help get well-defined requirements by using knowledge inside organisations and a classification of requirements perception based on how environment is controlled by stakeholders. Our approach can be used to guide the elicitation process as well as to validate the requirements.Eje: Procesamiento Concurrente, Paralelo y DistribuidoRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Considerations for Effective Requirements Analysis in Offshore Software Development Projects: Lessons from Multi-method Research

Offshore software development using geographically distributed teams is an accepted practice in software development today. However, software development companies have largely only offshored the software development lifecycle’s coding and testing phases. However, lately, offshoring the requirements analysis (RA) phase has become increasingly viable for several reasons including the software industry’s maturation and improved communication technologies. However, successfully evaluating this highly interactive phase between geographically dispersed client and provider teams requires special considerations. In this paper, we present practical insights garnered from conducting experiments and surveys of IS professionals from the Indian software industry and from extensively examining the literature. Our findings confirm that, subject to certain best practices, one can effectively conduct RA in software projects offshore. We present these practices as lessons learned and provide related recommendations for industry and academia

Quality of Design, Analysis and Reporting of Software Engineering Experiments:A Systematic Review

Background: Like any research discipline, software engineering research must be of a certain quality to be valuable. High quality research in software engineering ensures that knowledge is accumulated and helpful advice is given to the industry. One way of assessing research quality is to conduct systematic reviews of the published research literature. Objective: The purpose of this work was to assess the quality of published experiments in software engineering with respect to the validity of inference and the quality of reporting. More specifically, the aim was to investigate the level of statistical power, the analysis of effect size, the handling of selection bias in quasi-experiments, and the completeness and consistency of the reporting of information regarding subjects, experimental settings, design, analysis, and validity. Furthermore, the work aimed at providing suggestions for improvements, using the potential deficiencies detected as a basis. Method: The quality was assessed by conducting a systematic review of the 113 experiments published in nine major software engineering journals and three conference proceedings in the decade 1993-2002. Results: The review revealed that software engineering experiments were generally designed with unacceptably low power and that inadequate attention was paid to issues of statistical power. Effect sizes were sparsely reported and not interpreted with respect to their practical importance for the particular context. There seemed to be little awareness of the importance of controlling for selection bias in quasi-experiments. Moreover, the review revealed a need for more complete and standardized reporting of information, which is crucial for understanding software engineering experiments and judging their results. Implications: The consequence of low power is that the actual effects of software engineering technologies will not be detected to an acceptable extent. The lack of reporting of effect sizes and the improper interpretation of effect sizes result in ignorance of the practical importance, and thereby the relevance to industry, of experimental results. The lack of control for selection bias in quasi-experiments may make these experiments less credible than randomized experiments. This is an unsatisfactory situation, because quasi-experiments serve an important role in investigating cause-effect relationships in software engineering, for example, in industrial settings. Finally, the incomplete and unstandardized reporting makes it difficult for the reader to understand an experiment and judge its results. Conclusions: Insufficient quality was revealed in the reviewed experiments. This has implications for inferences drawn from the experiments and might in turn lead to the accumulation of erroneous information and the offering of misleading advice to the industry. Ways to improve this situation are suggested

Key determinants of research-knowledge sharing in UK higher education institutions

Knowledge sharing (KS) has attracted increasing attention in business circles. Links between knowledge sharing practice and organisational performance have long been demonstrated. Knowledge sharing is driven by three key enablers, i.e. people (Fliaster, 2004; Jayasingam et al., 2010; Kulkarni, et al., 2006); organisation (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1998; Tsai, 2002; Van den Hoof & Huysman, 2009); and information technology (Robinson et al., 2010; Tseng, 2008). Despite the breadth of research into the practice of knowledge sharing in commercial sectors, there is a lack of research into research-knowledge sharing (RKS) in higher education (HE). The practice of knowledge sharing in higher education institutions (HEIs) is critical, particularly in relation to RKS, which could influence university research activity and performance. However, the nature of research-knowledge and the process of sharing research-knowledge have not been practically explored. Most importantly, the relationship between RKS and university research performance has not yet been fully examined. This study attempts to ascertain the nature and the process of sharing research-knowledge in HEIs in general, and to examine the influence of the desired key determinants on RKS in particular. Eight UK universities are selected for this study, which are examined in two sub-groups: the Pre-1992 and the Post-1992 universities. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to conduct the study. The study found that RKS is influenced by the three enablers, but implicit research culture is critical in determining the differences between Pre-1992 and Post-1992 University‘s research performance. In addition, RKS follows a distinctive process – knowledge hoarding-knowledge seeking-knowledge sharing. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between research-leadership and research-knowledge sharing, which is centred on interactive relationship with professors. The findings of this study provide original insight into the specific field of knowledge sharing which adds knowledge to the body of knowledge management and organisational culture. They are of great importance to research-leaders in HEIs to develop and implement research strategies.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo