3 research outputs found
Safety-Critical Systems and Agile Development: A Mapping Study
In the last decades, agile methods had a huge impact on how software is
developed. In many cases, this has led to significant benefits, such as quality
and speed of software deliveries to customers. However, safety-critical systems
have widely been dismissed from benefiting from agile methods. Products that
include safety critical aspects are therefore faced with a situation in which
the development of safety-critical parts can significantly limit the potential
speed-up through agile methods, for the full product, but also in the
non-safety critical parts. For such products, the ability to develop
safety-critical software in an agile way will generate a competitive advantage.
In order to enable future research in this important area, we present in this
paper a mapping of the current state of practice based on {a mixed method
approach}. Starting from a workshop with experts from six large Swedish product
development companies we develop a lens for our analysis. We then present a
systematic mapping study on safety-critical systems and agile development
through this lens in order to map potential benefits, challenges, and solution
candidates for guiding future research.Comment: Accepted at Euromicro Conf. on Software Engineering and Advanced
Applications 2018, Prague, Czech Republi
T-Reqs: Tool Support for Managing Requirements in Large-Scale Agile System Development
T-Reqs is a text-based requirements management solution based on the git
version control system. It combines useful conventions, templates and helper
scripts with powerful existing solutions from the git ecosystem and provides a
working solution to address some known requirements engineering challenges in
large-scale agile system development. Specifically, it allows agile
cross-functional teams to be aware of requirements at system level and enables
them to efficiently propose updates to those requirements. Based on our
experience with T-Reqs, we i) relate known requirements challenges of
large-scale agile system development to tool support; ii) list key requirements
for tooling in such a context; and iii) propose concrete solutions for
challenges.Comment: Accepted for publication in Proc. of 26th IEEE Int. Requirements Eng.
Conf., Demo Track, Banff, Alberta, Canada, 201
Documentation of quality requirements in agile software development
Abstract
Context: Quality requirements (QRs) have a significant role in the success of software projects. In agile software development (ASD), where working software is valued over comprehensive documentation, QRs are often under-specified or not documented. Consequently, they may be handled improperly and result in degraded software quality and increased maintenance costs. Investigating the documentation of QRs in ASD, would provide evidence on existing practices, tools and aspects considered in ASD that other practitioners might utilize to improve documentation and management of QRs in ASD. Although there are some studies examining documentation in ASD, those that specifically investigate the documentation of QRs in depth are lacking.
Method: we conducted a multiple case study by interviewing 15 practitioners of four ASD cases, to provide empirical evidence on documentation of QRs in ASD. We also run workshops with two of the cases, to identify important aspects that ASD practitioners consider when documenting QRs in requirements management repositories.
Result and conclusions: ASD companies approach documentation of QRs to fit the needs of their context. They used tools, backlogs, iterative prototypes, and artifacts such as epic, and stories to document QRs, or utilized face-face communication without documenting QRs. We observed that documentation of QRs in ASD is affected by factors such as context (e.g. product domain, and size) and the experience of practitioners. Some tools used to document QRs also enhanced customer collaboration, enabling customers report and document QRs. Aspects such as levels of abstraction, the traceability of QRs, optimal details of information of QRs and verification and validation are deemed important when documenting QRs in ASD requirements management repositories