Introducing Basic Systematic Requirements Engineering Practices in Small Organizations with an Easy to Adopt Method

Uolevi Nikula Introducing Basic Systematic Requirements Engineering Practices in Small Organizations with an Easy to Adopt Method Lappeenranta 2004 207 p. Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis 189 Diss. Lappeenranta University of Technology ISBN 951-764-948-7, ISSN 1456-4491 Requirements-related issues have been found the third most important risk factor in software projects and as the biggest reason for software project failures. This is not a surprise since requirements engineering (RE) practices have been reported deficient in more than 75% of all enterprises. A problem analysis on small and low maturity software organizations revealed two central reasons for not starting process improvement efforts: lack of resources and uncertainty about process improvement effort paybacks. In the constructive part of the study a basic RE method, BaRE, was developed to provide an easy to adopt way to introduce basic systematic RE practices in small and low maturity organizations. Based on diffusion of innovations literature, thirteen desirable characteristics were identified for the solution and the method was implemented in five key components: requirements document template, requirements development practices, requirements management practices, tool support for requirements management, and training. The empirical evaluation of the BaRE method was conducted in three industrial case studies. In this evaluation, two companies established a completely new RE infrastructure following the suggested practices while the third company conducted continued requirements document template development based on the provided template and used it extensively in practice. The real benefits of the adoption of the method were visible in the companies in four to six months from the start of the evaluation project, and the two small companies in the project completed their improvement efforts with an input equal to about one person month. The collected data on the case studies indicates that the companies implemented new practices with little adaptations and little effort. Thus it can be concluded that the constructed BaRE method is indeed easy to adopt and it can help introduce basic systematic RE practices in small organizations.