Requirements Engineering that Balances Agility of Teams and System-level Information Needs at Scale
Doctoral thesis, 2020
Context: Motivated by their success in software development, large-scale systems development companies are increasingly adopting agile methods and their practices. Such companies need to accommodate different development cycles of hardware and software and are usually subject to regulation and safety concerns. Also, for such companies, requirements engineering is an essential activity that involves upfront and detailed analysis which can be at odds with agile development methods.
Objective: The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the challenges and solution candidates of performing effective requirements engineering in an agile environment, based on empirical evidence. Illustrated with studies on safety and system-level information needs, we explore RE challenges and solutions in large-scale agile development, both in general and from the teams’ perspectives.
Method: To meet our aim, we performed a secondary study and a series of empirical studies based on case studies. We collected qualitative data using interviews, focus groups and workshops to derive challenges and potential solutions from industry.
Findings: Our findings show that there are numerous challenges of conducting requirements engineering in agile development especially where systems development is concerned. The challenges discovered sprout from an integration problem of working with agile methods while relying on established plan-driven processes for the overall system. We highlight the communication challenge of crossing the boundary of agile methods and system-level (or plan-driven) development, which also proves the coexistence of both methods.
Conclusions: Our results highlight the painful areas of requirements engineering in agile development and propose solutions that can be explored further. This thesis contributes to future research, by establishing a holistic map of challenges and candidate solutions that can be further developed to make RE more efficient within agile environments.
Objective: The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the challenges and solution candidates of performing effective requirements engineering in an agile environment, based on empirical evidence. Illustrated with studies on safety and system-level information needs, we explore RE challenges and solutions in large-scale agile development, both in general and from the teams’ perspectives.
Method: To meet our aim, we performed a secondary study and a series of empirical studies based on case studies. We collected qualitative data using interviews, focus groups and workshops to derive challenges and potential solutions from industry.
Findings: Our findings show that there are numerous challenges of conducting requirements engineering in agile development especially where systems development is concerned. The challenges discovered sprout from an integration problem of working with agile methods while relying on established plan-driven processes for the overall system. We highlight the communication challenge of crossing the boundary of agile methods and system-level (or plan-driven) development, which also proves the coexistence of both methods.
Conclusions: Our results highlight the painful areas of requirements engineering in agile development and propose solutions that can be explored further. This thesis contributes to future research, by establishing a holistic map of challenges and candidate solutions that can be further developed to make RE more efficient within agile environments.
Author
RASHIDA KASAULI
Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Software Engineering (Chalmers)
Agile Islands in a Waterfall Environment: Challenges and Strategies in Automotive
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series,; (2020)p. 31-40
Paper in proceeding
Charting Coordination Needs in Large-Scale Agile Organisations with Boundary Objects and Methodological Islands
Proceedings - 2020 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software and System Processes, ICSSP 2020,; (2020)p. 51-60
Paper in proceeding
Safety-Critical Systems and Agile Development: A Mapping Study
Proceedings - 44th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, SEAA 2018,; (2018)p. 470-477
Paper in proceeding
T-Reqs: Tool support for managing requirements in large-scale agile system development
Proceedings - 2018 IEEE 26th International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE 2018,; (2018)p. 502-503
Paper in proceeding
Requirements Engineering Challenges in Large-Scale Agile System Development
International Requirements Engineering Conference,; (2017)p. 352-361
Paper in proceeding
Requirements engineering challenges and practices in large-scale agile system development
Journal of Systems and Software,; Vol. 172(2021)
Journal article
Large-scale companies are increasingly adopting agile methods in order to meet customer demands and keep up with the competition. The adoption of agile methods comes with challenges as such large companies need to accommodate different development cycles of hardware and software, and are usually subject to regulation and safety concerns.
Also, these companies develop products that are increasingly software-driven and constantly changing. For such software-intensive systems, requirements engineering is essential for successful development. Requirements engineering traditionally involves upfront and detailed analysis which can be at odds with agile development methods.
This thesis contributes new knowledge about the challenges related to requirements engineering in large-scale agile systems development as well as solutions. This contribution has been achieved through a series of empirical studies that discover the information needs and related knowledge pertinent to systems development.
The new knowledge and approaches presented in this thesis can be used to inform processes in large-scale agile system development. Thereby helping to address the gap between agile and traditional methods, and ultimately combating many challenges relating to coordination and knowledge management. We hope that this research will help large-scale companies to be more successful in their adoption of agile methods.
Also, these companies develop products that are increasingly software-driven and constantly changing. For such software-intensive systems, requirements engineering is essential for successful development. Requirements engineering traditionally involves upfront and detailed analysis which can be at odds with agile development methods.
This thesis contributes new knowledge about the challenges related to requirements engineering in large-scale agile systems development as well as solutions. This contribution has been achieved through a series of empirical studies that discover the information needs and related knowledge pertinent to systems development.
The new knowledge and approaches presented in this thesis can be used to inform processes in large-scale agile system development. Thereby helping to address the gap between agile and traditional methods, and ultimately combating many challenges relating to coordination and knowledge management. We hope that this research will help large-scale companies to be more successful in their adoption of agile methods.
Subject Categories
Software Engineering
Information Science
ISBN
978-91-7905-331-4
Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie: 4798
Publisher
Chalmers