A Case Study Evaluation of the Guideline-Supported QUPER Model for Elicitation of Quality Requirements

[Context & motivation] For market-driven software product developing organizations operating on a competitive open market, it is important to plan the product’s releases so that they can reach the market as early as possible with a competitive level of quality compared to its competitors' products. Hence, quality requirements can be seen as a key competitive advantage. The QUPER model was developed with the aim to support high-level decision-making in release planning of quality requirements. [Question/problem] As a follow up on previous studies on QUPER, this study investigates: What are practitioner's views on the utilities of QUPER extended with guidelines including domain-specific examples? [Principal ideas/results] In the presented case study, a set of detailed guidelines of how to apply QUPER in practice, including how to handle cost dependencies between quality requirements, was evaluated at a case company in the mobile handset domain with 24 professionals using real quality requirements. [Contribution] The results point to the importance of having concrete guidelines combined with instructive examples from real practice, while it is not always obvious for a practitioner to transfer cost-dependency examples into the domains that are different from the example domain. The transferability of guidelines and examples to support methodology adoption is an interesting issue for further research

A Feasibility Study of Automated Support for Similarity Analysis of Natural Language Requirements in Market-Driven Development

In market-driven software development there is a strong need for support to handle congestion in the requirements engineering process, which may occur as the demand for short time-to-market is combined with a rapid arrival of new requirements from many different sources. Automated analysis of the continuous flow of incoming requirements provides an opportunity to increase the efficiency of the requirements engineering process. This paper presents empirical evaluations of the benefit of automated similarity analysis of textual requirements, where existing information retrieval techniques are used to statistically measure requirements similarity. The results show that automated analysis of similarity among textual requirements is a promising technique that may provide effective support in identifying relationships between requirements

Improving Requirements-Test Alignment by Prescribing Practices that Mitigate Communication Gaps

The communication of requirements within software development is vital for project success. Requirements engineering and testing are two processes that when aligned can enable the discovery of issues and misunderstandings earlier, rather than later, and avoid costly and time-consuming rework and delays. There are a number of practices that support requirements-test alignment. However, each organisation and project is different and there is no one-fits-all set of practices. The software process improvement method called Gap Finder is designed to increase requirements-test alignment. The method contains two parts: an assessment part and a prescriptive part. It detects potential communication gaps between people and between artefacts (the assessment part), and identifies practices for mitigating these gaps (the prescriptive part). This paper presents the design and formative evaluation of the prescriptive part; an evaluation of the assessment part was published previously. The Gap Finder method was constructed using a design science research approach and is built on the Theory of Distances for Software Engineering, which in turn is grounded in empirical evidence from five case companies. The formative evaluation was performed through a case study in which Gap Finder was applied to an on-going development project. A qualitative and mixed-method approach was taken in the evaluation, including ethnographically-informed observations. The results show that Gap Finder can detect relevant communication gaps and seven of the nine prescribed practices were deemed practically relevant for mitigating these gaps. The project team found the method to be useful and supported joint reflection and improvement of their requirements communication. Our findings demonstrate that an empirically-based theory can be used to improve software development practices and provide a foundation for further research on factors that affect requirements communicatio

Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in European Journal of Engineering Edutaion on 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03043797.2015.1121468Since the 1990s, the low number of students choosing to study science and technology in higher education has been on the societal agenda and many initiatives have been launched to promote awareness regarding career options. The initiatives particularly focus on increasing enrolment in the engineering programmes. This article describes and compares eight European initiatives that have been established and operated by universities (and in some cases through collaboration with other actors in society). Each initiative is summarised in a short essay that discusses motivation, organisation, pedagogical approach, and activities. The initiatives are characterised by comparing the driving forces behind their creation, how the initiative activities relate to the activities at the university, size based on the number of participants and cost per participant and pedagogical framework. There seem to be two main tracks for building outreach activities, one where outreach activities are based on the university’s normal activities, and one where outreach activities are designed specifically for the visiting students.Gumaelius, L.; Almqvistb, M.; Arnadottir, A.; Axelsson, A.; Conejero, JA.; García Sabater, JP.; Klitgaard, L.... (2016). Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology. European Journal of Engineering Education. 41(6):589-622. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2015.1121468S58962241

Crowd Intelligence in Requirements Engineering: Current Status and Future Directions

Software systems are the joint creative products of multiple stakeholders, including both designers and users, based on their perception, knowledge and personal preferences of the application context. The rapid rise in the use of Internet, mobile and social media applications make it even more possible to provide channels to link a large pool of highly diversified and physically distributed designers and end users, the crowd. Converging the knowledge of designers and end users in requirements engineering process is essential for the success of software systems. In this paper, we report the findings of a survey of the literature on crowd-based requirements engineering research. It helps us understand the current research achievements, the areas of concentration, and how requirements related activities can be enhanced by crowd intelligence. Based on the survey, we propose a general research map and suggest the possible future roles of crowd intelligence in requirements engineering

Supraglottic Activity: Evidence of Vocal Hyperfunction or Laryngeal Articulation?

False vocal fold (FVF) adduction and compression of the arytenoid cartilages to the petiole of the epiglottis in an anterior to posterior (A-P) direction have been thought to characterize voice disorders with abnormally increased muscle tension or effort, often termed hyperfunctional voice disorders. To further evaluate the association between hyperfunctional voice disorders and supraglottic activity, we compared the incidence of static and dynamic supraglottic activity in individuals with normal laryngeal mucosa, normal voice quality, and no voice complaints to Kvo populations: subjects with vocal fold nodules and subjects with complaints of dysphonia without visible vocal fold lesions, glottal incompetence, or impairment of arytenoid cartilage motion ( hyperfunctional group). Thirty-two subjects were assigned to one of these three groups (10 control, 12 nodule, and 10 hyperfunctional). Laryngeal movements were recorded using flexible videoendoscopy while a subject was performing speech tasks such as sustained phonation, syllable repetitions, sentence imitations, and conversation. Samples were randomized by subject and task and rated for presence or absence of A-P and FVF compression. Statistically significant group differences were found for FVF compression across speech tasks (chi-square, p \u3c 0.001). The control group had the smallest incidence (45%), nodule patients the next larger incidence (68%), and hyperfunctiona patients the largest incidence (80%). Statistically significant group differences were found for A-P compression across speech tasks (chi-square, p \u3c .05). The control group had the smallest incidence (74%), nodule patients the next larger incidence (78%), and hyperfunctional patients the largest incidence (92%). Statistically significant task differences were found for the presence of FVF compression in control subjects (chi-square, p \u3c .005), hyperfunctional patients (chi-square, p \u3c .025), and nodule patients (chi-square, p \u3c .001), but not for A-P compression for any of the groups. A higher incidence of FVF compression was present for the speech tasks that included glottal stops. This context-specific variation in supraglottic activity suggested a dynamic component to FVF compression and also explained the high proportion of FVF compression in the control group. Each video sample was also rated for consistency of FVF or A-P compression to explore the static and dynamic nature of supraglottic activity. For samples on which raters agreed, A-P compression was typically present consistently, suggesting a static component, and FVF compression inconsistently, suggesting a dynamic component, for all three groups (chi-square, p \u3c .001). These findings do not support previous suggestions that supraglottic activity may be a precursor to developing vocal fold nodules, as the nodule patients did not exhibit a higher incidence or consistency of A-P or FVF compression than patients with hyperfunctional voicing patterns in this study. Subjects in the hyperfunctional voice group were found to have static components of FVF and A-P compression. The presence of FVF compression in speech tasks that included glottal stops in the control group suggests an articulatory function at the laryngeal level

Increasing concentrations of iron in surface waters as a consequence of reducing conditions in the catchment area

Recent studies report trends of strongly increasing iron (Fe) concentrations in freshwaters. Since Fe is a key element with a decisive role in the biogeochemical cycling of major elements, it is important to understand the mechanisms behind these trends. We hypothesized that variations in Fe concentration are driven mainly by redox dynamics in hydraulically connected soils. Notably, Fe(III), which is the favored oxidation state except in environments where microbial activity provide strong reducing intensity, has several orders of magnitude lower water solubility than Fe(II). To test our hypothesis, seasonal variation in water chemistry, discharge, and air temperature was studied in three Swedish rivers. Methylmercury and sulfate were used as indicators of seasonal redox changes. Seasonal variability in water chemistry, discharge, and air temperature in the Emån and Lyckeby Rivers implied that the variation in Fe was primarily driven by the prevalence of reducing conditions in the catchment. In general, high Fe concentrations were observed when methylmercury was high and sulfate was low, indicative of reducing conditions. The Fe concentrations showed no or weak relationships with variations in dissolved organic matter concentration and aromaticity. The seasonal variation in Fe concentration of the Ume river was primarily dependent on timing of the snowmelt in high- versus low-altitude areas of the catchment. There were long-term trends of increasing temperature in all catchments and also trends of increasing discharge in the southern rivers, which should increase the probability for anaerobic conditions in space and time and thereby increase Fe transport to the aquatic systems

Requirements engineering in open innovation : A research agenda

In recent years Open Innovation (OI) has gained much attention and made firms aware that they need to consider the open environment surrounding them. To facilitate this shift Requirements Engineering (RE) needs to be adapted in order to manage the increase and complexity of new requirements sources as well as networks of stakeholders. In response we build on and advance an earlier proposed software engineering framework for fostering OI, focusing on stakeholder management, when to open up, and prioritization and release planning. Literature in open source RE is contrasted against recent findings of OI in software engineering to establish a current view of the area. Based on the synthesized findings we propose a research agenda within the areas under focus, along with a framing-model to help researchers frame and break down their research questions to consider the different angles implied by the OI model