Why and how to balance alignment and diversity of requirements engineering practices in automotive

Abstract

This is a preprint of the following article, accepted to the Journal of Systems and Software: Rebekka Wohlrab, Eric Knauss, Patrizio Pelliccione, Why and How to Balance Alignment and Diversity of Requirements In large-scale automotive companies, various requirements engineering (RE) practices are used across teams. RE practices manifest in Requirements Information Models (RIM) that define what concepts and information should be captured for requirements. Collaboration of practitioners from different parts of an organization is required to define a suitable RIM that balances support for diverse practices in individual teams with the alignment needed for a shared view and team support on system level. There exists no guidance for this challenging task. This paper presents a mixed methods study to examine the role of RIMs in balancing alignment and diversity of RE practices in four automotive companies. Our analysis is based on data from systems engineering tools, 11 semi-structured interviews, and a survey to validate findings and suggestions. We found that balancing alignment and diversity of RE practices is important to consider when defining RIMs. We further investigated enablers for this balance and actions that practitioners take to achieve it. From these factors, we derived and evaluated recommendations for managing RIMs in practice that take into account the lifecycle of requirements and allow for diverse practices across sub-disciplines in early development, while enforcing alignment of requirements that are close to release.

Requirement Engineering Challenges for AI-intense Systems Development

“…• A discussion of requirements information models that support collaboration across organizational boundaries [33].…”

“…• Discussions of RE practices at scale [33] and boundary objects for requirements-based coordination [39], [40].…”

Charting Coordination Needs in Large-Scale Agile Organisations with Boundary Objects and Methodological Islands

“…The regulation and standards boundary objects that we identified in this study relate to this category. Moreover, process boundary objects potentially include classification schemes, for instance, by defining requirements information models that determine how stakeholders should work with requirements-related concerns and how they should be categorised [31].…”

Modeling and Analysis of Boundary Objects and Methodological Islands in Large-Scale Systems Development

“…In this paper, we address this gap by proposing a metamodel for boundary objects and methodological islands in large-scale systems development. This model is based on empirical data and accounts from ongoing projects [14,25,26]. By creating such a model, a complete picture of an organization's coordination needs and boundary objects can be established, analyzed, and used to identify and mitigate current issues in a more visual and structured way.…”

“…Moreover, many companies describe information models to capture artifact types and their relations. These information models also serve as BOs, change over time, and can be used to define the required degree of alignment of different teams' practices [26].…”