A Study about the Knowledge and Use of Requirements Engineering Standards in Industry

Context: The use of standards is considered a vital part of any engineering discipline. So one could expect that standards play an important role in Requirements Engineering (RE) as well. However, little is known about the actual knowledge and use of RE-related standards in industry. Objective: In this article, we investigate to which extent standards and related artifacts such as templates or guidelines are known and used by RE practitioners. Method: To this end, we have conducted an questionnaire-based online survey. We could analyze the replies from 90 RE practitioners using a combination of closed and open-text questions. Results: Our results indicate that the knowledge and use of standards and related artifacts in RE is less widespread than one might expect from an engineering perspective. For example, about 45\% of the respondents working as requirements engineers or business analysts do not know at least one of the two core standard in RE. Participants in our study mostly use standards by personal decision rather than being imposed by their respective company, customer, or regulator. Beyond insufficient knowledge, we also found cultural and organizational factors impeding the widespread adoption of standards in RE. Conclusions: Overall, our results provide empirically informed insights into the actual use of standards and related artifacts in RE practice and - indirectly - about the value that the current standards create for RE practitioners.Comment: Preprint accepted for publication at IEEE Transactions on Software Engineerin

End-user driven feedback prioritization

End-user feedback is becoming more important for the evolution of software systems. There exist various communication channels for end-users (app stores, social networks) which allow them to express their experiences and requirements regarding a software application. End-users communicate a large amount of feedback via these channels which leads to open issues regarding the use of end-user feedback for software development, maintenance and evolution. This includes investigating how to identify relevant feedback scattered across different feedback channels and how to determine the priority of the feedback issues communicated. In this research preview paper, we discuss ideas for enduser driven feedback prioritization.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Feedback Gathering from an Industrial Point of View

Feedback communication channels allow end-users to express their needs, which can be considered in software development and evolution. Although feedback gathering and analysis have been identified as an important topic and several researchers have started their investigation, information is scarce on how software companies currently elicit end-user feedback. In this study, we explore the experiences of software companies with respect to feedback gathering. The results of a case study and online survey indicate two sides of the same coin: on the one hand, most software companies are aware of the relevance of end-user feedback for software evolution and provide feedback channels, which allow end-users to communicate their needs and problems. On the other hand, the quantity and quality of the feedback received varies. We conclude that software companies still do not fully exploit the potential of end-user feedback for software development and evolution

Sustainability Design and Software: The Karlskrona Manifesto

Sustainability has emerged as a broad concern for society. Many engineering disciplines have been grappling with challenges in how we sustain technical, social and ecological systems. In the software engineering community, for example, maintainability has been a concern for a long time. But too often, these issues are treated in isolation from one another. Misperceptions among practitioners and research communities persist, rooted in a lack of coherent understanding of sustainability, and how it relates to software systems research and practice. This article presents a cross-disciplinary initiative to create a common ground and a point of reference for the global community of research and practice in software and sustainability, to be used for effectively communicating key issues, goals, values and principles of sustainability design for software-intensive systems. The centrepiece of this effort is the Karlskrona Manifesto for Sustainability Design, a vehicle for a much needed conversation about sustainability within and beyond the software community, and an articulation of the fundamental principles underpinning design choices that affect sustainability. We describe the motivation for developing this manifesto, including some considerations of the genre of the manifesto as well as the dynamics of its creation. We illustrate the collaborative reflective writing process and present the current edition of the manifesto itself. We assess immediate implications and applications of the articulated principles, compare these to current practice, and suggest future steps

Requirements: The Key to Sustainability

Software's critical role in society demands a paradigm shift in the software engineering mind-set. This shift's focus begins in requirements engineering. This article is part of a special issue on the Future of Software Engineering

A study about the knowledge and use of requirements engineering standards in industry

Context. The use of standards is considered a vital part of any engineering discipline. So one could expect that standards play an important role in Requirements Engineering (RE) as well. However, little is known about the actual knowledge and use of RE-related standards in industry. Objective. In this article, we investigate to which extent standards and related artifacts such as templates or guidelines are known and used by RE practitioners. Method. To this end, we have conducted a questionnaire-based online survey. We could analyze the replies from 90 RE practitioners using a combination of closed and open-text questions. Results. Our results indicate that the knowledge and use of standards and related artifacts in RE is less widespread than one might expect from an engineering perspective. For example, about 47% of the respondents working as requirements engineers or business analysts do not know the core standard in RE, ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148. Participants in our study mostly use standards by personal decision rather than being imposed by their respective company, customer, or regulator. Beyond insufficient knowledge, we also found cultural and organizational factors impeding the widespread adoption of standards in RE. Conclusions. Overall, our results provide empirically informed insights into the actual use of standards and related artifacts in RE practice and – indirectly – about the value that the current standards create for RE practitioners.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

First international workshop on usability and accessibility focused requirements engineering (UsARE 2012): summary report

Usability and accessibility issues are common causes why software fails to meet user requirements. However, requirements engineers still focus on functional requirements and might ignore to also elicit system usability and accessibility requirements. This is a high risk which can lead to project and software failure. Improving the usability and accessibility of a system in a later development stage is costly and time consuming. Targeting these concerns, the workshop envisioned that research must address the proper integration of system usability and accessibility requirements into the requirements engineering process and also must focus on how to manage and control the evaluation of these requirements in a systematic way. UsARE 2012 provided a platform for discussing issues which are relevant for both fields, the Requirements Engineering (RE) and the Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The workshop aim was to bring\ together people from these two communities (RE and HCI) to explore this integration. Researchers and practitioners were invited to submit contributions including problem statements, technical solutions, experience reports, planned work and vision papers. Envisioned results may help aligning RE and HCI processes in order to overcome open issues in these fields

Mind the Gap: Bridging the Sustainable Software Systems Research Divide

Sustainability is a major concern to humanity as a result of the consequences of the rapid consumption of the planets finite natural resources, combined with exponential economic and population growth. Principally associated with the field of ecology, sustainability has emerged as an important area of research in a number of sub-fields within the domain of computing including human-computer interaction. While these communities have attempted to address the challenges of sustainability from their different perspectives, there is a severe lack of common understanding of the fundamental concepts of sustainability and how they relate to software systems. As a result, there is a need for a common ground and consistent terminology to reduce the replication of effort. This paper presents the Karlskrona Manifesto for Sustainabilty Design as a mechanism for initiating a conversation between the different communities in addressing the challenges of developing sustainable software systems