The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies

Requirements specifcation is a core activity in the requirements engineering phase of a software development project. Researchers have contributed extensively to the feld of requirements specifcation, but the extent to which their proposals have been adopted in practice remains unclear. We gathered...

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Autores: Franch Gutiérrez, Javier|||0000-0001-9733-8830, Palomares Bonache, Cristina|||0000-0003-4722-5584, Quer, Carme|||0000-0002-9000-6371, Chatzipetrou, Panagiota, Gorschek, Tony
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/387554
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/387554
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00766-023-00399-7
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Requirements engineering
Computer software -- Development
Requirements specifcation
Requirements documentation
Natural language requirements
Requirements management tools
Empirical studies
Interviews
Enginyeria de requisits
Programari -- Desenvolupament
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Enginyeria del software
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spelling The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companiesFranch Gutiérrez, Javier|||0000-0001-9733-8830Palomares Bonache, Cristina|||0000-0003-4722-5584Quer, Carme|||0000-0002-9000-6371Chatzipetrou, PanagiotaGorschek, TonyRequirements engineeringComputer software -- DevelopmentRequirements specifcationRequirements documentationNatural language requirementsRequirements management toolsEmpirical studiesInterviewsEnginyeria de requisitsProgramari -- DesenvolupamentÀrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Enginyeria del softwareRequirements specifcation is a core activity in the requirements engineering phase of a software development project. Researchers have contributed extensively to the feld of requirements specifcation, but the extent to which their proposals have been adopted in practice remains unclear. We gathered evidence about the state of practice in requirements specifcation by focussing on the artefacts used in this activity, the application of templates or guidelines, how requirements are structured in the specifcation document, what tools practitioners use to specify requirements, and what challenges they face. We conducted an interview-based survey study involving 24 practitioners from 12 diferent Swedish IT companies. We recorded the interviews and analysed these recordings, primarily by using qualitative methods. Natural language constitutes the main specifcation artefact but is usually accompanied by some other type of instrument. Most requirements specifcations use templates or guidelines, although they seldom follow any fxed standard. Requirements are always structured in the document according to the main functionalities of the system or to project areas or system parts. Diferent types of tools, including MS Ofce tools, are used, either individually or combined, in the compilation of requirements specifcations. We also note that challenges related to the use of natural language (dealing with ambiguity, inconsistency, and incompleteness) are the most frequent challenges that practitioners face in the compilation of requirements specifcations. These fndings are contextualized in terms of demographic factors related to the individual interviewees, the organization they are afliated with, and the project they selected to discuss during our interviews. A number of our fndings have been previously reported in related studies. These fndings show that, in spite of the large number of notations, models and tools proposed from academia for improving requirements specifcation, practitioners still mainly rely on plain natural language and general-purpose tool support. We expect more empirical studies in this area in order to better understand the reason of this low adoption of research results.This paper has been funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under project/funding scheme PID2020-117191RB-I00/AEI/.Peer Reviewed20232023-09-0120232023-05-18journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2117/387554https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00766-023-00399-7reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPCinstname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)InglésengAgencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020 PID2020-117191RB-I00 DESARROLLO, OPERATIVA Y GOBERNANZA DE DATOS PARA SISTEMAS SOFTWARE BASADOS EN APRENDIZAJE AUTOMATICOopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/3875542026-05-27T15:37:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
title The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
spellingShingle The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
Franch Gutiérrez, Javier|||0000-0001-9733-8830
Requirements engineering
Computer software -- Development
Requirements specifcation
Requirements documentation
Natural language requirements
Requirements management tools
Empirical studies
Interviews
Enginyeria de requisits
Programari -- Desenvolupament
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Enginyeria del software
title_short The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
title_full The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
title_fullStr The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
title_full_unstemmed The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
title_sort The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Franch Gutiérrez, Javier|||0000-0001-9733-8830
Palomares Bonache, Cristina|||0000-0003-4722-5584
Quer, Carme|||0000-0002-9000-6371
Chatzipetrou, Panagiota
Gorschek, Tony
author Franch Gutiérrez, Javier|||0000-0001-9733-8830
author_facet Franch Gutiérrez, Javier|||0000-0001-9733-8830
Palomares Bonache, Cristina|||0000-0003-4722-5584
Quer, Carme|||0000-0002-9000-6371
Chatzipetrou, Panagiota
Gorschek, Tony
author_role author
author2 Palomares Bonache, Cristina|||0000-0003-4722-5584
Quer, Carme|||0000-0002-9000-6371
Chatzipetrou, Panagiota
Gorschek, Tony
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Requirements engineering
Computer software -- Development
Requirements specifcation
Requirements documentation
Natural language requirements
Requirements management tools
Empirical studies
Interviews
Enginyeria de requisits
Programari -- Desenvolupament
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Enginyeria del software
topic Requirements engineering
Computer software -- Development
Requirements specifcation
Requirements documentation
Natural language requirements
Requirements management tools
Empirical studies
Interviews
Enginyeria de requisits
Programari -- Desenvolupament
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Enginyeria del software
description Requirements specifcation is a core activity in the requirements engineering phase of a software development project. Researchers have contributed extensively to the feld of requirements specifcation, but the extent to which their proposals have been adopted in practice remains unclear. We gathered evidence about the state of practice in requirements specifcation by focussing on the artefacts used in this activity, the application of templates or guidelines, how requirements are structured in the specifcation document, what tools practitioners use to specify requirements, and what challenges they face. We conducted an interview-based survey study involving 24 practitioners from 12 diferent Swedish IT companies. We recorded the interviews and analysed these recordings, primarily by using qualitative methods. Natural language constitutes the main specifcation artefact but is usually accompanied by some other type of instrument. Most requirements specifcations use templates or guidelines, although they seldom follow any fxed standard. Requirements are always structured in the document according to the main functionalities of the system or to project areas or system parts. Diferent types of tools, including MS Ofce tools, are used, either individually or combined, in the compilation of requirements specifcations. We also note that challenges related to the use of natural language (dealing with ambiguity, inconsistency, and incompleteness) are the most frequent challenges that practitioners face in the compilation of requirements specifcations. These fndings are contextualized in terms of demographic factors related to the individual interviewees, the organization they are afliated with, and the project they selected to discuss during our interviews. A number of our fndings have been previously reported in related studies. These fndings show that, in spite of the large number of notations, models and tools proposed from academia for improving requirements specifcation, practitioners still mainly rely on plain natural language and general-purpose tool support. We expect more empirical studies in this area in order to better understand the reason of this low adoption of research results.
publishDate 2023
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023
2023-09-01
2023
2023-05-18
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2117/387554
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00766-023-00399-7
url https://hdl.handle.net/2117/387554
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00766-023-00399-7
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Agencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020 PID2020-117191RB-I00 DESARROLLO, OPERATIVA Y GOBERNANZA DE DATOS PARA SISTEMAS SOFTWARE BASADOS EN APRENDIZAJE AUTOMATICO
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
instname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
instname_str Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
reponame_str UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
collection UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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