| 1. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, 1978, et al.
(author)
-
A Case Study Evaluation of the Guideline-Supported QUPER Model for Elicitation of Quality Requirements
- 2015
-
In: Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. - Cham : Springer-Verlag Berlin. - 0302-9743 .- 1611-3349. - 9783319161013 - 9783319161006 ; 9013, s. 230-246
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 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. As a follow up on previous studies on QUPER, this study investigates: What are practitioners' 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. 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.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
An investigation of how quality requirements are specified in industrial practice
- 2013
-
In: Information and Software Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0950-5849 .- 1873-6025. ; 55:7, s. 1224-1236
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context: This paper analyses a sub-contractor specification in the mobile handset domain. Objective: The objective is to understand how quality requirements are specified and which types of requirements exist in a requirements specification from industry. Method: The case study is performed in the mobile handset domain, where a requirements specification was analyzed by categorizing and characterizing the pertaining requirements. Results: The requirements specification is written in structured natural language with unique identifiers for the requirements. Of the 2178 requirements, 827 (38%) are quality requirements. Of the quality requirements, 56% are quantified, i.e., having a direct metric in the requirement. The variation across the different sub-domains within the requirements specification is large. Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that methods for quality requirements need to encompass many aspects to comprehensively support working with quality requirements. Solely focusing on, for example, quantification of quality requirements might overlook important requirements since there are many quality requirements in the studied specification where quantification is not appropriate. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
|
|
| 4. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
Cost and benefit analysis of quality requirements in competitive software product management: a case study on the QUPER model
- 2010
-
In: 2010 Fourth International Workshop on Software Product Management. - 9781424487646
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In market-driven product development, it is important that the software product is released to the market at the right time, and offers higher quality than the competitors. In release planning, the allocation of development effort in investments into product enhancements, functions are competing with quality requirements for limited resources. In addition, it is important to find the right balance between competing quality requirements. In this paper, we present an industrial evaluation of the benefit and cost views in the QUality PERformance (QUPER) model. The results indicate that the model is relevant in the release planning process, and that the combination of the benefit and cost views provides a clear picture of the current market situation.
|
|
| 5. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
Introducing Support for Release Planning of Quality Requirements - An Industrial Evaluation of the QUPER Model
- 2008
-
In: Second International Workshop on Software Product Management, 2008. IWSPM '08.. - 9781424440832 ; , s. 20-28
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In market-driven product development and release planning, it is important to market success to find the right balance among competing quality requirements. To address this issue, a conceptual model that incorporates quality as a dimension in addition to the cost and value dimensions used in prioritisation approaches for functional requirements has been developed. In this paper, we present an industrial evaluation of the model. The results indicate that the quality performance model provides helpful information about quality requirements in release planning. All subjects stated that the most difficult estimations may be more accurate by using the quality performance model.
|
|
| 6. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, 1978, et al.
(author)
-
Is role playing in Requirements Engineering Education increasing learning outcome?
- 2017
-
In: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 22:4, s. 475-489
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Requirements Engineering has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers and practitioners in recent years. This increasing interest requires academia to provide students with a solid foundation in the subject matter. In Requirements Engineering Education (REE), it is important to cover three fundamental topics: traditional analysis and modeling skills, interviewing skills for requirements elicitation, and writing skills for specifying requirements. REE papers report about using role playing as a pedagogical tool; however, there is a surprising lack of empirical evidence on its utility. In this paper we investigate whether a higher grade in a role playing project have an effect on students' score in an individual written exam in a Requirements Engineering course. Data are collected from 412 students between the years of 2007 and 2014 at Lund University and Chalmers | University of Gothenburg. The results show that students who received a higher grade in the role playing project scored statistically significant higher in the written exam compared to the students with a lower role playing project grade.
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
Prioritization of quality requirements : State of practice in eleven companies
- 2011
-
In: 2011 IEEE 19th International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE 2011; Trento; 29 August 2011 through 2 September 2011. - Trento : IEEE. - 9781457709234 ; , s. 69-78, s. 69-78
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Requirements prioritization is recognized as an important but challenging activity in software product development. For a product to be successful, it is crucial to find the right balance among competing quality requirements. Although literature offers many methods for requirements prioritization, the research on prioritization of quality requirements is limited. This study identifies how quality requirements are prioritized in practice at 11 successful companies developing software intensive systems. We found that ad-hoc prioritization and priority grouping of requirements are the dominant methods for prioritizing quality requirements. The results also show that it is common to use customer input as criteria for prioritization but absence of any criteria was also common. The results suggests that quality requirements by default have a lower priority than functional requirements, and that they only get attention in the prioritizing process if decision-makers are dedicated to invest specific time and resources on QR prioritization. The results of this study may help future research on quality requirements to focus investigations on industry-relevant issues.
|
|
| 9. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
Quality Requirements in Industrial Practice – An Extended Interview Study at Eleven Companies
- 2012
-
In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. - : IEEE. - 0098-5589 .- 1939-3520. ; 38:4, s. 923-935
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In order to create a successful software product and assure its quality, it is not enough to fulfill the functional requirements, it is also crucial to find the right balance among competing quality requirements (QR). An extended, previosluy piloted, interview study was performed to identify specific challenges associated with the selection, trade-off, and management of QR in industrial practice. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with eleven product managers and eleven project leaders from eleven software companies. The contribution of this study is fourfold: First, it compares how QR are handled in two cases, companies working in business-to-business markets, and companies that are working in business-to-consumer markets. These two are also compared in terms of impact on the handling of QRs. Second, it compares the perceptions and priorities of QR by product and project management respectively. Third, it includes an examination of the interdependencies among quality requirements perceived as most important by the practitioners. Fourth, it characterizes the selection and management of QR in down-stream development activities.
|
|
| 10. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, 1978, et al.
(author)
-
Quality Requirements in Industrial Practice - An Extended Interview Study at Eleven Companies
- 2011
-
In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. - 0098-5589 .- 1939-3520.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In order to create a successful software product and assure its quality, it is not enough to fulfill the functional requirements, it is also crucial to find the right balance among competing quality requirements (QR). An extended, previously piloted, interview study was performed to identify specific challenges associated with the selection, trade-off, and management of QR in industrial practice. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with eleven product managers and eleven project leaders from eleven software companies. The contribution of this study is fourfold: First, it compares how QR are handled in two cases, companies working in business-to-business markets, and companies that are working in business-to-consumer markets. These two are also compared in terms of impact on the handling of QRs. Second, it compares the perceptions and priorities of QR by product and project management respectively. Third, it includes an examination of the interdependencies among quality requirements perceived as most important by the practitioners. Fourth, it characterizes the selection and management of QR in down-stream development activities.
|
|
| 11. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
Quality requirements in practice: an interview study in requirements engineering for embedded systems
- 2009
-
In: Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. - 1611-3349 .- 0302-9743. ; 5512, s. 218-232
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- [Context and motivation] In market-driven software development it is crucial, but challenging, to find the right balance among competing quality requirements (QR). [Problem] In order to identify the unique challenges associated with the selection, trade-off, and management of quality requirements an interview study is performed. [Results] This paper describes how QR are handled in practice. Data is collected through interviews with five product managers and five project leaders from five software companies. [Contribution] The contribution of this study is threefold: Firstly, it includes an examination of the interdependencies among quality requirements perceived as most important by the practitioners. Secondly, it compares the perceptions and priorities of quality requirements by product management and project management respectively. Thirdly, it characterizes the selection and management of quality requirements in down-stream development activities.
|
|
| 12. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
Setting quality targets for coming releases with QUPER - an industrial case study
- 2012
-
In: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; 17:4, s. 283-298
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Quality requirements play a critical role in driving architectural design and are an important issue in software development. Therefore, quality requirements need to be considered, specified, and quantified early during system analysis and not later in the development phase in an ad-hoc fashion. This paper presents the quality performance model that estimates quality targets in relation to market expectations as a basis for the architecting of quality requirements. The purpose of the model is to provide concepts for qualitative reasoning of quality levels in the decision-making of setting actual targets of quality requirements for coming releases of the product. The quality performance model is evaluated at one case company, using a market-driven development approach, in the electronic payment-processing domain. The results show that the model is useful for supporting early decisionmaking in, e.g., release planning of quality requirements
|
|
| 13. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(author)
-
Towards modeling guidelines for capturing the cost of improving software product quality in release planning
- 2010
-
In: PROFES '10 Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Product Focused Software. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. - 9781450302814 ; , s. 20-23
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Quality requirements complement functional requirements with information on the target quality levels of software functions or emergent system quality aspects. In release planning the allocation of development effort in further investments into product enhancements, new or enhanced functions are competing with quality improvements for limited resources. When setting balanced quality targets for development of coming releases, the estimated costs of improved software quality is needed as a basis for decisions. In this paper, we present initial results from an industrial evaluation of modeling guidelines for the Cost View in the QUality PERformance (QUPER) model. The initial results indicate the feasibility of the proposed modeling approach to cost estimation of quality requirements in QUPER, but further validation is needed.
|
|
| 14. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
A Case Study on Benefits and Side-Effects of Agile Practices in Large-Scale Requirements Engineering
- 2011
-
In: [Host publication title missing].
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the software industry, there is a strong shift from traditional phase-based development towards agile methods and practices. This paper reports on a case study aimed at investigating if, and how, agile Requirements Engineering (RE) can remedy the challenges of traditional RE, and what new challenges agile RE may pose. The results from an initial case study with 9 practitioners from a large software development company, which is transitioning towards agile-inspired processes, show that agile practices address some RE challenges such as communication gaps and overscoping, but also cause new challenges, such as striking a good balance between agility and stability, and ensuring sufficient competence in cross-functional development teams.
|
|
| 15. |
|
|
| 16. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Are You Biting Off More Than You Can Chew? A Case Study on Causes and Effects of Overscoping in Large-Scale Software Engineering
- 2012
-
In: Information and Software Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0950-5849. ; 54:10, s. 1107-1124
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context: Scope management is a core part of software release management and often a key factor in releasing successful software products to the market. In a market-driven case, when only a few requirements are known a priori, the risk of overscoping may increase. Objective: This paper reports on findings from a case study aimed at understanding overscoping in large-scale, market-driven software development projects, and how agile requirements engineering practices may affect this situation. Method: Based on a hypothesis of which factors that may be involved in an overscoping situation, semi- structured interviews were performed with nine practitioners at a large, market-driven software company. The results from the interviews were validated by six (other) practitioners at the case company via a questionnaire. Results: The results provide a detailed picture of overscoping as a phenomenon including a number of causes, root causes and effects, and indicate that overscoping is mainly caused by operating in a fast moving market-driven domain and how this ever-changing inflow of requirements is managed. Weak awareness of overall goals, in combination with low development involvement in early phases, may contribute to ‘biting off’ more than a project can ‘chew’. Furthermore, overscoping may lead to a number of potentially serious and expensive consequences, including quality issues, delays and failure to meet customer expectations. Finally, the study indicates that overscoping occurs also when applying agile requirements engineering practices, though the overload is more manageable and perceived to result in less wasted effort when applying a continuous scope prioritization, in combination with gradual requirements detailing and a close cooperation within cross-functional teams. Conclusion: The results provide an increased understanding of scoping as a complex and continuous activity, including an analysis of the causes, effects, and a discussion on possible impact of agile requirements engineering practices to the issue of overscoping. The results presented in this paper can be used to identify potential factors to address in order to achieve a more realistic project scope.
|
|
| 17. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Challenges and practices in aligning requirements with verification and validation : a case study of six companies
- 2014
-
In: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 19:6, s. 1809-1855
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Weak alignment of requirements engineering (RE) with verification and validation (VV) may lead to problems in delivering the required products in time with the right quality. For example, weak communication of requirements changes to testers may result in lack of verification of new requirements and incorrect verification of old invalid requirements, leading to software quality problems, wasted effort and delays. However, despite the serious implications of weak alignment research and practice both tend to focus on one or the other of RE or VV rather than on the alignment of the two. We have performed a multi-unit case study to gain insight into issues around aligning RE and VV by interviewing 30 practitioners from 6 software developing companies, involving 10 researchers in a flexible research process for case studies. The results describe current industry challenges and practices in aligning RE with VV, ranging from quality of the individual RE and VV activities, through tracing and tools, to change control and sharing a common understanding at strategy, goal and design level. The study identified that human aspects are central, i.e. cooperation and communication, and that requirements engineering practices are a critical basis for alignment. Further, the size of an organisation and its motivation for applying alignment practices, e.g. external enforcement of traceability, are variation factors that play a key role in achieving alignment. Our results provide a strategic roadmap for practitioners improvement work to address alignment challenges. Furthermore, the study provides a foundation for continued research to improve the alignment of RE with VV.
|
|
| 18. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Evidence-Based Timelines for Agile Project Retrospectives – A Method Proposal
- 2012
-
In: Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming/Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 9783642303494 ; 111:5, s. 177-184
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Retrospective analysis of agile projects can support identification of issues through team reflection and may enable learning and process improvements. Basing retrospectives primarily on experiences poses a risk of memory bias as people may remember events differently, which can lead to incorrect conclusions. This bias is enhanced in project retrospectives which cover a longer period compared to iteration retrospectives. To support teams in recalling accurate and joint views of projects, we propose using an evidence-based timeline with historical data as input to project retrospectives. The proposed method was developed together with a large software development company in the telecommunications domain. This paper outlines a method for visualizing an evidence-based project timeline by illustrating aspects such as business priority, iterations and test activities. Our method complements an experience-based approach by providing objective data as a starting point for reflection and aims to support objective analysis of issues and root causes.
|
|
| 19. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Evidence-Based Timelines for Project Retrospectives-A Method for Assessing Requirements Engineering in Context
- 2012
-
In: [Host publication title missing]. - 9781467343640 ; , s. 17-24
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Effective requirements engineering (RE) can support efficient development of successful products. However, assessing and improving how RE supports its context, i.e. the development life cycle, is non-trivial since many different roles and factors are involved over a long period of time. Project retrospectives may support project teams in reflecting on how requirements are agreed upon and communicated throughout a project. However, time is rarely taken for group reflection after project completion. Furthermore, project events may be recalled differently due to memory bias. We propose supporting project retrospective meetings by providing prepared evidence-based timelines visualizing the project history. The method was designed and evaluated in collaboration with a large telecommunications company using action research with the goal of assessing RE within the full development life-cycle. The initial evaluation results show that the method may support project retrospectives through fact-based memory recall and by enabling efficient and factual group discussions of RE in the context of the project life-cycle. In addition, some areas for improvement of the method have been identified, e.g. strengthened focus on expected outcome and clearer visual separation of evidence types.
|
|
| 20. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Improving requirements-test alignment by prescribing practices that mitigate communication gaps
- 2019
-
In: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7616 .- 1382-3256. ; 24:4, s. 2364-2409
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 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-tes t 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 approachwas 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 requirementscommunication. 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 communication.
|
|
| 21. |
|
|
| 22. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Overscoping: Reasons and Consequences – A Case Study on Decision Making in Software Product Management
- 2010
-
In: Fourth International Workshop on Software Product Management (IWSPM), 2010. - 9781424487646 ; , s. 1-10
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Efficient scope management is a core part of software release management and often a key factor in releasing successful software products to the market. In a case when not all the requirements for the next software product release are known ‘a priori’ and when new requirements are issued throughout the project, the risk of overscoping by including more functionality than can be implemented increases. In this paper, we report on findings from an empirical interview study about understanding the causes and effects of overscoping in a large-scale industrial set up. Six main causes of overscoping have been identified in this work, complemented by root cause analysis of the causes and concluded by effects of overscoping. The results provide an increased understanding of the scoping activity as a continuous activity and outline risks and issues that can lead to a situation of overscoping.
|
|
| 23. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Reflecting on Evidence-Based Timelines
- 2014
-
In: IEEE Software. - 0740-7459 .- 1937-4194. ; 31:4, s. 37-43
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Project retrospectives can be powerful tools for project teams to collectively identify communication gaps and practices to improve for future projects. However, even if project members take the time for a retrospective, it can be hard to correctly remember and jointly discuss past events in a constructive way. Fact-based timelines that visualize a project's events offer a possible solution.
|
|
| 24. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Requirements are Slipping Through the Gaps - A Case Study on Causes & Effects of Communication Gaps in Large-Scale Software Development
- 2011
-
In: IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference. ; , s. 37-46
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Communication is essential for software development as its efficiency throughout the entire project life-cycle is a key factor in developing and releasing successful software products to the market. This paper reports on findings from an explanatory case study aiming at a deeper understanding of the causes and effects of communication gaps in a large-scale industrial set up. Based on an assumption of what causes gaps in communication of requirements and what effects such gaps have, a semi-structured interview study was performed with nine practitioners at a large market-driven software company. We found four main factors that affect the requirements communication, namely scale, temporal aspects, common views and decision structures. The results also show that communication gaps lead to failure to meet the customers’ expectations, quality issues and wasted effort. An increased awareness of these factors is a help in identifying what to address to achieve a more efficient requirements management, and ultimately more efficient and successful software development. By closing the communication gaps the requirements may continue all the way through the project life-cycle and be more likely to result in software that meets the customers’ expectations.
|
|
| 25. |
|
|
| 26. |
- Bjarnason, Elizabeth, et al.
(author)
-
Variations on the Evidence-Based Timeline Retrospective Method A Comparison of Two Cases
- 2013
-
In: 39th Euromicro Conference Series on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications. ; 2013, s. 37-44
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Project retrospectives can be a powerful tool for process improvement through obtaining new insights. However pure experience-based reflections may lead to incorrect conclusions. Our method, evidence-based timeline retrospectives (EBTR), mitigates this risk by providing a pre-generated timeline that visualises project history based on evidence rather than relying on subjective opinions and biased memories. Through a comparative study of two cases, a set of variation points has been evaluated. The variation points enable configuring the EBTR method to different contexts and retrospective goals. The results indicate that by selecting certain variations the EBTR method can be configured to support either wide assessments (e.g. the overall impact of a new process) or assessments of a specific process area. For example, through using open or semi-structured discussions, or by varying the applied timeline technique.
|
|
| 27. |
- Borg, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
Supporting Change Impact Analysis Using a Recommendation System : An Industrial Case Study in a Safety-Critical Context
- 2017
-
In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. - : IEEE. - 0098-5589 .- 1939-3520. ; 43:7, s. 675-700
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Change Impact Analysis (CIA) during software evolution of safety-critical systems is a labor-intensive task. Several authors have proposed tool support for CIA, but very few tools were evaluated in industry. We present a case study on ImpRec, a recommendation System for Software Engineering (RSSE), tailored for CIA at a process automation company. ImpRec builds on assisted tracing, using information retrieval solutions and mining software repositories to recommend development artifacts, potentially impacted when resolving incoming issue reports. In contrast to the majority of tools for automated CIA, ImpRec explicitly targets development artifacts that are not source code. We evaluate ImpRec in a two-phase study. First, we measure the correctness of ImpRec's recommendations by a simulation based on 12 years' worth of issue reports in the company. Second, we assess the utility of working with ImpRec by deploying the RSSE in two development teams on different continents. The results suggest that ImpRec presents about 40 percent of the true impact among the top-10 recommendations. Furthermore, user log analysis indicates that ImpRec can support CIA in industry, and developers acknowledge the value of ImpRec in interviews. In conclusion, our findings show the potential of reusing traceability associated with developers' past activities in an RSSE.
|
|
| 28. |
- Carlshamre, Pär, et al.
(author)
-
An Industrial Survey of Requirements Interdependencies in Software Product Release Planning
- 2001
-
In: In Proc. Fifth IEEE Int. Symposium on Requirements Engineering (RE'01). - : IEEE. - 0769511252 ; , s. 84-91
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The task of finding an optimal selection of requirements for the next release of a software system is difficult as requirements may depend on each other in complex ways. The paper presents the results from an in-depth study of the interdependencies within 5 distinct sets of requirements, each including 20 high-priority requirements of 5 distinct products from 5 different companies. The results show that: (1) roughly 20% of the requirements are responsible for 75% of the interdependencies; (2) only a few requirements are singular; (3) customer-specific bespoke development tend to include more functionality- related dependencies whereas market-driven product development have an emphasis on value-related dependencies. Several strategies for reducing the effort needed for identifying and managing interdependencies are outlined. A technique for visualization of interdependencies with the aim of supporting release planning is also discussed. The complexity of requirements interdependency analysis is studied in relation to metrics of requirements coupling. Finally, a number of issues for further research are identified
|
|
| 29. |
|
|
| 30. |
- Dahlstedt, Åsa G., et al.
(author)
-
Market-driven requirements engineering processes for software products - a report on current practices
- 2003
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports on some preliminary results from the first stage of an interview survey, focusing on current practices and challenges in market-driven RE. The interviews are analysed based on the characteristics of market-driven RE presented in the literature. The interviews correspond largely with the literature. Identified discrepancies compared with the literature concerns the time-to-market attribute and documentation of requirements. Two major groupings among the participating companies were found. The RE processes of one of these groupings are focused on facilitating the activities fundamental in market-driven RE, e.g. the release planning activity, while the other is more document-driven. The results of the interviews also include some ideas on how market-driven RE activities may be performed.
|
|
| 31. |
|
|
| 32. |
|
|
| 33. |
- Heintz, Fredrik, et al.
(author)
-
Computing at School in Sweden - Experiences from Introducing Computer Science within Existing Subjects
- 2015
-
In: Informatics in Schools. Curricula, Competences, and Competitions /Lecture Notes in Computer Science and General Issues. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. - 1611-3349 .- 0302-9743. - 9783319253954 - 9783319253961 ; 9378, s. 118-130
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Computing is no longer considered a subject area only relevant for a narrow group of professionals, but rather as a vital part of general education that should be available to all children and youth. Since making changes to national curricula takes time, people are trying to find other ways of introducing children and youth to computing. In Sweden, several current initiatives by researchers and teachers aim at finding ways of working with computing within the current curriculum. In this paper we present case studies based on a selection of these initiatives from four major regions in Sweden and based on these case studies we present our ideas for how to move forward on introducing computational thinking on a larger scale in Swedish education.
|
|
| 34. |
- Heintz, Fredrik, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Computing at School in Sweden – Experiences fromIntroducing Computer Science within Existing Subjects
- 2015
-
In: Proceeding of the 8th International Conference on Informatics in Schools:Situation, Evolution, and Perspective (ISSEP). - : Springer. - 9783319253954
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Computing is no longer considered a subject area only relevant for anarrow group of professionals, but rather as a vital part of general education thatshould be available to all children and youth. Since making changes to nationalcurricula takes time, people are trying to find other ways of introducing childrenand youth to computing. In Sweden, several current initiatives by researchers andteachers aim at finding ways of working with computing within the current curriculum.In this paper we present case studies based on a selection of these initiativesfrom four major regions in Sweden and based on these case studies wepresent our ideas for how to move forward on introducing computational thinkingon a larger scale in Swedish education.
|
|
| 35. |
- Heintz, Fredrik, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Introducing Programming and Digital Competence in Swedish K-9 Education
- 2017
-
In: Informatics in Schools. - Cham : Springer. - 1611-3349 .- 0302-9743. - 9783319714820 - 9783319714837 ; , s. 117-128
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The role of computer science and IT in Swedish schools has varied throughout the years. In fall 2014, the Swedish government gave the National Agency for Education (Skolverket) the task of preparing a proposal for K–9 education on how to better address the competences required in a digitalized society. In June 2016, Skolverket handed over a proposal introducing digital competence and programming as interdisciplinary traits, also providing explicit formulations in subjects such as mathematics (programming, algorithms and problem-solving), technology (controlling physical artifacts) and social sciences (fostering aware and critical citizens in a digital society). In March 2017, the government approved the new curriculum, which needs to be implemented by fall 2018 at the latest. We present the new K–9 curriculum and put it in a historical context. We also describe and analyze the process of developing the revised curriculum, and discuss some initiatives for how to implement the changes.
|
|
| 36. |
- Höst, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
A Framework for Simulation of Requirements Engineering Processes
- 2008
-
In: [Host publication title missing]. - 9780769532769 ; , s. 183-190
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The objective of the work presented in this paper is to design and develop a framework for simulation of requirements engineering processes. The framework is intended to be a support when simulation models are built by guiding the modeler in which components to use in this type of models and to speed up the process of developing simulation models. The framework was developed through an iterative process where it was used to model two processes that previously have been represented in simulation models. The resulting framework consists of three layers; one representing general process modeling concepts, one representing software process concepts, and one representing requirements engineering concepts.
|
|
| 37. |
|
|
| 38. |
- Höst, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
Exploring Bottlenecks in Market-Driven Requirements Management Processes with Discrete Event Simulation
- 2001
-
In: Journal of Systems and Software. - 0164-1212. ; 59:3, s. 323-332
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a study where a market-driven requirements management process is simulated. In market-driven software development, generic software packages are released to a market with many customers. New requirements are continuously issued, and the objective of the requirements management process is to elicit, manage, and prioritize the requirements. In the presented study, a specific requirements management process is modelled using discrete event simulation, and the parameters of the model are estimated based on interviews with people from the specific organisation where the process is used. Based on the results from simulations, conditions that result in an overload situation are identified. Simulations are also used to find process change proposals that can result in a non-overloaded process. The risk of overload can be avoided if the capacity of the requirements management process is increased, or if the number of incoming requirements is decreased, for example, through early rejection of low-priority requirements.
|
|
| 39. |
- Höst, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
Using Students as Subjects – A Comparative Study of Students and Professionals in Lead-Time Impact Assessment
- 2000
-
In: Empirical Software Engineering. - 1573-7616. ; 5:3, s. 201-214
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In many studiesin software engineering students are used instead of professionalsoftware developers, although the objective is to draw conclusionsvalid for professional software developers. This paper presentsa study where the difference between the two groups is evaluated.People from the two groups have individually carried out a non-trivialsoftware engineering judgement task involving the assessmentof how ten different factors affect the lead-time of softwaredevelopment projects. It is found that the differences are onlyminor, and it is concluded that software engineering studentsmay be used instead of professional software developers undercertain conditions. These conditions are identified and describedbased on generally accepted criteria for validity evaluationof empirical studies.
|
|
| 40. |
- Karlsson, Joachim, et al.
(author)
-
An evaluation of methods for prioritizing software requirements
- 1998
-
In: Information and Software Technology. - 0950-5849. ; 39:14-15, s. 939-947
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article describes an evaluation of six different methods for prioritizing software requirements. Based on the quality requirements for a telephony system, the authors individually used all six methods on separate occasions to prioritize the requirements. The methods were then characterized according to a number of criteria from a user's perspective. We found the analytic hierarchy process to be the most promising method, although it may be problematic to scale-up. In an industrial follow-up study we used the analytic hierarchy process to further investigate its applicability. We found that the process is demanding but worth the effort because of its ability to provide reliable results, promote knowledge transfer and create consensus among project members.
|
|
| 41. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
A Case Study in Retrospective Analysis of Release Planning in an Agile Project
- 2006
-
In: 1st Workshop on the Interplay of Requirements Engineering and Project Management in Software Projects (REProMan’05).
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a case study evaluating a retrospective analysis method, aimed at improving the release planning activity in project management. The method is based on a re-evaluation of candidate requirements for prior releases in order to uncover release planning decisions that would have been made differently today. The method aims at using the lessons learned during the analysis to find improvement possibilities for the release planning in future projects. The release planning in the investigated project turned out as successful in the retrospective analysis. This may be due to the in-house project type, as the users in an in-house project are few and tangible, and have more similar requirements, compared to in a marketdriven project. It may also be due to the iterative approach used during development as it provides possibilities of continual re-prioritisation of requirements.
|
|
| 42. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Aligning the Requirements Engineering Process with the Maturity of Markets and Products
- 2004
-
In: Proceedings of 10th International Workshop on Requirements Engineering: Fundation for Software Quality (REFSQ'04). ; , s. 69-74
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper describes the product life cycle and its implications for the requirements engineering process, and proposes a research agenda for increasing the understanding of market and product maturity implications on requirements engineering. A product life cycle comprises four stages of maturity: Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. All products go through these four stages of maturity during its lifetime, and we believe it is necessary to take the maturity into account when deciding on requirements engineering issues. User behaviour differs between the stages, the organisation goes through drastic changes and the product itself evolves. Thus, these characteristics force different demands on the requirements engineering process, and this position paper suggests strategies for requirements engineering in the different stages.
|
|
| 43. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Case studies in process improvement through retrospective analysis of release planning decisions
- 2006
-
In: International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering. - 0218-1940. ; 16:6, s. 885-915
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The process of selecting requirements for a release of a software product is challenging as the decision-making is based on uncertain predictions of customer value and development cost. This paper presents a method aimed at supporting software product development organisations in the identification of process improvement proposals to increase requirements selection quality. The method is based on an in-depth analysis of requirements selection decision outcomes after the release has been launched to the users. The method is validated in two separate case studies involving real requirements and industrial requirements engineering experts. The conclusions from the two case studies are that the method seems valuable in situations with complex release planning decisions, such as in market-driven projects. It also appears essential that participants with different viewpoints attend the root cause discussion. Requirements interdependencies seem to play a big role in release planning decision-making. In addition, successful projects can also be a source of learning.
|
|
| 44. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Challenges in Market-Driven Requirements Engineering - an Industrial Interview Study
- 2002
-
In: Proceeding of the Eighth International Workshop on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. ; , s. 37-49
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Requirements engineering for commercial off-the-shelf software packages entails special challenges. This paper presents preliminary results from an empirical study investigating these challenges through a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. The survey is exploratory with the objective of eliciting relevant topics for further research. Seven employees at five software companies with a market-driven development focus were interviewed. The areas of interest include process-related issues on release planning, requirements quality and decision support, as well as artefact-related issues regarding requirements as discrete entities and their representation. The paper also contains a characterization of each company, regarding aspects such as products, processes and customers. A number of challenging issues were elicited, including communication gaps between marketing and development, the problem of balancing the influence between marketing and development on requirements decisions, as well as the limited value of monolithic requirements specifications and the problem of requirements overloading.
|
|
| 45. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Comparing Ordinal and Ratio Scale Data in Requirements Prioritisation
- 2005
-
In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Comparative Evaluation in Requirements Engineering (CERE'05).
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The importance of prioritising requirements is widely recognised. A number of different techniques for prioritising requirements have been proposed, some based on an ordinal scale, others on a ratio scale. Different scales provide different levels of information, e.g. the ratio scale is richer than the ordinal scale. This paper aims to investigate the difference in information and aim to find ways to measure and compare the different levels of information. This is important since techniques using a richer scale tend to be more time-consuming and complex to use. Thus, there is a trade-off between simple techniques yielding less information and complex techniques yielding more information. The paper suggests three approaches to compare the level of information inherent in the two scales, and one way to design the cost-value diagram when the priorities are based on ranks. An empirical data set was used to verify the suggested approaches.
|
|
| 46. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Evaluating the practical use of different measurement scales in requirements prioritisation
- 2006
-
In: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM/IEEE international symposium on International symposium on empirical software engineering. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. ; 2006, s. 326-335
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The importance of prioritising requirements is widely recognised. A number of different techniques for prioritising requirements have been proposed, some based on an ordinal scale, others on a ratio scale. Some measurement scales provide more information than others, i.e. the ratio scale is richer than the ordinal scale. This paper aims to investigate the differences between the scales used in prioritisation. This is important since techniques using a richer scale tend to be more time-consuming and complex to use. Thus, there is a trade-off between simple techniques only providing ranks and complex techniques providing information about the relative distance between requirements priorities. The paper suggests an approach to measure the skewness of the ratio distribution and a way to use the cost-value approach on ordinal scale data. Four different empirical data sets were used to verify the suggested approaches. The skewness measure seems feasible to determine in which cases the ratio scale is valuable. It indicates that some of our subjects tend to use the extreme values of the scale while others are more modest. The cost-value approach based on ordinal scale data also seems feasible. The requirements selection decisions based on ordinal scale data agree substantially with the decisions based on ratio scale data. Copyright 2006 ACM.
|
|
| 47. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Introducing tool support for retrospective analysis of release planning decisions
- 2006
-
In: Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 1611-3349 .- 0302-9743. - 9783540346821 ; 4034, s. 19-33
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The release planning activity in market-driven requirements engineering is crucial but difficult. The quality of the decisions on product content and release timing determines the market success, but as predictions of market value and development cost are uncertain, the decisions are not always optimal. This paper presents a prototype tool for retrospective analysis of release planning decisions based on tool requirements gathered in two previous empirical studies where retrospective analysis was done manually. The supported method enables representation of different views in the decision-making process. The results from an initial validation indicate that the retrospective analysis benefits from the supporting tool.
|
|
| 48. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Pair-wise comparisons versus planning game partitioning-experiments on requirements prioritisation techniques
- 2007
-
In: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7616 .- 1382-3256. ; 12:1, s. 3-33
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The process of selecting the right set of requirements for a product release is dependent on how well the organisation succeeds in prioritising the requirements candidates. This paper describes two consecutive controlled experiments comparing different requirements prioritisation techniques with the objective of understanding differences in time-consumption, ease of use and accuracy. The first experiment evaluates Pair-wise comparisons and a variation of the Planning game. As the Planning game turned out as superior, the second experiment was designed to compare the Planning game to Tool-supported pair-wise comparisons. The results indicate that the manual pair-wise comparisons is the most time-consuming of the techniques, and also the least easy to use. Tool-supported pair-wise comparisons is the fastest technique and it is as easy to use as the Planning game. The techniques do not differ significantly regarding accuracy.
|
|
| 49. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Post-release analysis of requirements selection quality - an industrial case study
- 2003
-
In: Proceedings of 9th International Workshop on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ'03).
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The process of selecting requirements for a release of a software product is challenging as the decision-making is based on uncertain predictions of issues such as market value and development cost. This paper presents a method aimed at supporting software product development organisations in the identification of process improvement proposals to increase requirements selection quality. The method is based on an in-depth analysis of requirements selection decision outcomes after the release has been launched to the market and is in use by customers. The method is validated in a case study involving real requirements and industrial requirements engineering experts. The case study resulted in a number of process improvement areas relevant to the specific organisation and the method was considered promising by the participating experts.
|
|
| 50. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(author)
-
Requirements Engineering Challenges in Market-Driven Software Development : An Interview Study with Practitioners
- 2007
-
In: Information and Software Technology. - : Elsevier. - 0950-5849 .- 1873-6025. ; 49:6, s. 588-604
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Requirements engineering for market-driven software development entails special challenges. This paper presents results from an empirical study that investigates these challenges, taking a qualitative approach using interviews with fourteen employees at eight software companies and a focus group meeting with practitioners. The objective of the study is to increase the understanding of the area of market-driven requirements engineering and provide suggestions for future research by describing encountered challenges. A number of challenging issues were found, including bridging communication gaps between marketing and development, selecting the right level of process support, basing the release plan on uncertain estimates, and managing the constant flow of requirement.s
|
|
