Assessing Requirements Engineering and Software Test Alignment - Five Case Studies

• The development of large, software-intensive systems is a complex undertaking that we generally tackle by a divide and conquerstrategy. Companies thereby face the challenge of coordinating individual aspects of software development, in particular betweenrequirements engineering (RE) and software testing (ST). A lack of REST alignment can not only lead to wasted effort but alsoto defective software. However, before a company can improve the mechanisms of coordination they need to be understood first.With REST-bench we aim at providing an assessment tool that illustrates the coordination in software development projects andidentify concrete improvement opportunities. We have developed REST-bench on the sound fundamentals of a taxonomy onREST alignment methods and validated the method in five case studies. Following the principles of technical action research, wecollaborated with five companies, applying REST-bench and iteratively improving the method based on the lessons we learned.We applied REST-bench both in Agile and plan-driven environments, in projects lasting from weeks to years, and staffed as largeas 1000 employees. The improvement opportunities we identified and the feedback we received indicate that the assessmentwas effective and efficient. Furthermore, participants confirmed that their understanding on the coordination between RE and STimproved.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Programvaruteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Software Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Assessment

REST Alignment

Requirements Engineering

Software Testing

Coordination

Case Study

Technical Action Research

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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