Integrated Requirements Engineering – Understanding and Bridging Gaps in Software Development
Author
Summary, in English
When there are gaps between requirements and other development activities these gaps have a negative impact on the success of a project and a product. Similarly when there are no gaps, or they are effectively managed and bridged, the development process can run more smoothly and the project stands a better chance of delivering the required functionality, with good quality and on time.
The main topic of this thesis is the collaboration and alignment of requirements within software development, and how this can enable a development company to consistently develop and deliver products that are well received by their users. A number of challenges and practices including factors contributing to these have been identified through industrial case studies. Furthermore, this thesis includes two methods for supporting project teams in improving on their work practices. Both methods have been applied in live development projects and found to enable teams to reflect on their practices and consider what gaps there are between people, between activities and between artefacts. By doing so, they can gain insight into how to improve on their coordination and alignment of requirements.
The main conclusion of this thesis is that development as a whole can be improved with an integrated requirements engineering (iRE) approach. Understanding and bridging gaps, or the level of integration between requirements and other development activities, helps development teams in achieving the necessary collaboration to be aligned within the development projects. This then enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the development process by ensuring that the right thing is developed.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Full text
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Department of Computer Science, Lund University
Topic
- Computer Science
Keywords
- software engineering
- requirements engineering
- communication
- empirical research
Status
Published
Project
- Embedded Applications Software Engineering
Supervisor
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-91-7473-732-5 (print)
- ISBN: 978-91-7473-733-2
- LU-CS-DISS: 2013-02
Defence date
22 November 2013
Defence time
13:15
Defence place
Lecture hall E:1406, E-building, Ole Römers väg 3, Lund University Faculty of Engineering
Opponent
- Kurt Schneider