A Systematic Approach for Identifying Requirement Change Management Challenges

Abstract

Requirement Change is one of the most challenging tasks in software development lifecycle, particularly in the complex context of Global Software Development (GSD). During the last decade, many studies are carried out to address these problems, however, careful examination of these works suggests that there's a potential research gap. This paper has performed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to identify the most significant/commonly studied challenges of requirement change management process and furthermore this process under GSD context. We identified ten challenges such as impact analysis, cost estimation, artifacts documents management, requirement traceability, requirements dependency, conflicts with existing requirements, time estimation, change prioritization, user involvement, and system destabilizing. Furthermore, three challenges such as communication and coordination, knowledge sharing, management, and Change Control Board (CCB) management are identified for globally distributed projects. We also mapped these identified challenges to Requirement Change Management Process (RCMP) outcomes proposed in our previous study. We believe that mapping between RCM challenges and RCMP outcomes will enhance the practical significance of this study results. Considering the systematic literature review results, we suggest that there is a need to develop a framework for requirement change management for quality software systems development.

Global software development governance: Challenges and solutions

“…Many systematic reviews have been conducted within the scope of GSD. Some of the most recent systematic literature reviews and mapping studies in this domain have identified solutions, challenges or research gaps in terms of software architecting, 10 knowledge sharing, 21–23 agile practices, 12,24 requirements risks and change management, 25–29 cultural differences 28,29 or process improvement, 30 and among others. Although some of these studies address aspects that could indirectly be related to GSD governance, none of them directly addresses governance issues.…”

A Multi-dimensional Study of Requirements Changes in Agile Software Development Projects

“…According to Boehm [16], complexity is one of the important drivers in software cost. We combined requirements dependability and change conflicts with existing requirements which are considered as challenges in RC management in general [17] as cascading impact. Furthermore, we derived access to customer from our interview-based study findings and also adapted from Anwer et al's work [17] along with prioritization as communication is considered as a challenge in RC management in global software development and prioritization is a challenge in RC management in general, respectively.…”

A Study on Mitigating the Communication and Coordination Challenges During Requirements Change Management in Global Software Development

“…Consequently, Requirements Change Management (RCM) becomes a challenging and resource-consuming activity, especially when requested multiple times in the context of GSD [15]. Additionally, due to the massive number of requirements' changes, the development organizations conduct the RCM process in an imprecise manner; thereby, significantly increasing the required amount of development cost, time, and human effort [16]- [18]. On the other hand, poor communication and coordination among the stakeholders can negatively impact the RCM process in GSD [19], [20].…”

“…On the other hand, poor communication and coordination among the stakeholders can negatively impact the RCM process in GSD [19], [20]. Note that poor communication mainly occurs because of inefficient knowledge sharing, geographical distance, socio-cultural differences, and temporal distances [18], [21]- [24]. As a result, develop-ment organizations need to properly manage the communication, coordination and controlling mechanisms during the RCM process.…”