Preventing Requirement Defects: An Experiment in Process Improvement

Abstract

Inadequate requirements cause many problems in software products. This paper reports on an experiment to reduce the number of requirement defects. We analysed the present defects in a real-life product and estimated the likely effect of 44 prevention techniques. We had hoped a novel combination of techniques would come up, but the best approach was quite well known, although new to the company: study the user tasks better, make early prototypes of the user interface, and test them for usability. This approach was tried out in a new development project in the same company. Due to the new approach, there was no doubt about requirements during programming, and as a result it became the first project in the company that was completed on time and without stress. Usability was drastically improved, and as a result the product sold twice as many units as similar products, and at twice the unit price.

A framework of initiatives for successful application of life cycle costing (LCC) in industrialised building system (IBS) in Malaysian construction industry

“…Validation is an official determination that a framework is acceptable with respect to a set of explicit standards for a specific purpose [11]. As for this research, an expert panel opinion validation is utilised as suggested by other researchers [12][13][14][15][16]. The expert validation is obtained using a questionnaire by means of a structured interview.…”

Defining a Requirements Process Improvement Model

“…(Brodman and Johnson 1994;Hayes and Zubrow 1995;Sommerville and Sawyer 1997;Lauesen and Vinter 2001;Hall et al 2002a). We appreciate that the SW CMM is not a perfect model of software process assessment and improvement, as Paulk et al (1995) admit, "all models are wrong; some are useful.…”

“…A criticism of the SW CMM is that it is too descriptive and does not provide sufficient examples and specific guidelines to help companies with their process improvement activities, e.g. (Lauesen and Vinter 2001;Potter and Sakry 2001). By taking key RE sub-processes and extending them into detailed guidelines the R-CMM features specific activities that in turn can be measured.…”

“…The process of studying and refining system, hardware, or software requirements (IEEE 1999) Requirements Errors 2 classes according to (Davis et al 1993 (Lauesen and Vinter 2001) 1. Requirements Defects: if the product works as intended by the programmers, but doesn't match the surroundings.…”

Using occurrence properties of defect report data to improve requirements

“…Lauesen and Vinter, for example, looked at defect reports available a few months after a product's release. They found that about half of the defect reports involved requirements defects, with missing requirements being the most-frequent cause [6]. Requirements-related deficiencies were also found to be common causes of safety-critical anomalies during operations [8].…”