Empirical evidence of the influence of contextual attributes in the software requirements elicitation process
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- Submitted: October 20, 2015
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Published: November 7, 2015
Abstract
The requirements elicitation uses several techniques to capture information relevant to the shaping of software requirements. However, the effectiveness of these techniques depends on the context in which this occurs. This article aims to analyze the empirical evidence of the influence of these contextual attributes. For this, a systematic and non-systematic review of the literature was conducted to determine which are these attributes and perform a test of the theoretical and empirical studies related. The result of this analysis showed that almost half of contextual attributes has not been studied empirically, which means a low coordination between theory and empiricism. Also, for only a third of the attributes consistent evidence of their influence was found. This study helps to guide future empirical research on requirements elicitation pointing put possible experimental factors to consider.
References
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[33] A. Burton, N. Shadbolt, G. Rugg, y A. Hedgecock, "The efficacy of knowledge elicitation techniques: a comparison across domains and levels of expertise," Knowledge Acquisition, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 167-178, 1990.
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[35] C.J. Chao y G. Salvendy, "Impact of cognitive abilities of experts on the effectiveness of elicited knowledge," Behaviour and Information Technology, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 174-182, 1995.
[36] G.J. Browne y M.B. Rogich, "An empirical investigation of user requirements elicitation: comparing the effectiveness of prompting techniques," Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 223-249, 2001.
[37] D. Damian y D. Zowghi, “The impact of stakeholders geographical distribution on managing requirements in a multi-site organization,” IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering, pp. 319-328, 2002.
[38] B. Crandall, “A comparative study of think aloud and critical decision knowledge elicitation methods,” SIGART Newsletter, vol. 108, pp. 144-146, 1989.
[39] M. Grabowski, "Knowledge acquisition methodologies: survey and empirical assessment", Proc. of the Ninth International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 47-54, 1988.
[40] B.P. McCloskey, J. Geiwitz y J. Kornell, "Empirical comparisons of knowledge acquisition techniques," Proc. of
the 35th Annual Meeting Human Factors Soc, vol. 1, pp. 268-272, 1991.
[41] J.M. Moore y F.M.I. Shipman, “A comparison of questionnaire based and GUI based requirements gathering,” Proc. XV IEEE Int. Conf. on Software Engineering, pp. 35-43, 2000.
[42] F. Scapolo y I. Miles, “Eliciting experts' knowledge: A comparison of two methods,” Original Research Article Technological Forecasting, vol. 73, no. 6, pp. 679-704, 2006.
[43] W. Wagner, Q. Chung, y M. Najdawi, "The impact of problem domains and knowledge acquisitions techniques: a content analysis of P/OM expert system case studies," Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 24, pp. 79-86, 2003.
[44] B. Corbridge, G. Rugg, N.P. Major, N.R. Shadbolt y A.M. Burton, "Laddering - technique and tool use in knowledge acquisition," Knowledge Acquisition, vol. 6, pp. 315-341, 1994.
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[48] S. Zapata, E. Torres, G. Sevilla, L. Aballay y M. Reus, “Effectiveness of traditional software requirement elicitation techniques applied in distributed software development scenarios,” XXXVIII Conferencia Latinoamericana en Informática, pp. 1-7, 2012.
[49] I. Hadar, P. Soffer y K. Kenzi, “The role of domain knowledge in requirements elicitation via interviews: an exploratory study,” Requirements Engineering, pp. 1-17, 2012.
[50] R. Ahmad, A. Tahir y Z. Kasirun, “An empirical assessment of the use of different communication modes for requirement elicitation and negotiation using students as a subject,” IEEE Symposium on Computers and Informatics, ISCI, pp. 70-74, 2012.
[2] P.B. Nuseibeh y S.M. Easterbrook, "Requirements engineering: A roadmap," Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE'00. IEEE Computer Society Press, 2000.
[3] D. Zowghi y C. Coulin, “Requirements Elicitation: A Survey of Techniques, Approaches, and Tools,” en Engineering and Managing software requirements, A. Aurum and C. Wohlin, eds., pp. 19-46, Springer-Verlag, New York, 2005.
[4] L. Jiang, A. Eberlein y B.H. Far, “A case study validation of a knowledge-based approach for the selection of requirements engineering techniques,” Requirements Engineering Journal, vol. 13, no.2, pp. 117-146, 2008.
[5] J.E. Fowlkes, E. Salas y D.P. Baker: "The utility of event-based knowledge elicitation," Human Factors, vol. 42, pp. 24-35, 2000.
[6] J.S. Dhaliwal y I. Benbazat, “A framework for the comparative evaluation of knowledge acquisition tools and techniques,” Knowledge Acquisition, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 145-166, 1990.
[7] A. Davis y A. Hickey, “A tale of two ontologies: The basis for systems analysis technique selection,” Proc. 9th Annual American Conference on Information System, 2003.
[8] E. Batista y A. Carvalho, “Uma Taxonomia Facetada para Técnicas de Elicitação de Requisitos,” Anais do WER03 - Workshop em Engenharia de Requisitos, pp. 48-62, 2003.
[9] T.A. Byrd, K.L. Cossick y R.W. Zmud, “A synthesis of research on requirements analysis and knowledge acquisition techniques,” MIS Quarterly, vol. 16, pp. 117-138, 1992.
[10] T. Tsumaki y T. Tamai, “Framework for matching requirements elicitation techniques to project characteristics,” Software Process Improvement, vol. 11, no.5, pp. 505-519,2006.
[11] N. Maiden y G. Rugg, “ACRE: selecting methods for requirements acquisition,” Software Engineering Journal, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 183-192, 1996.
[12] Z. Zhang, “Effective Requirements Development - A Comparison of Requirements Elicitation Techniques,” en Software Quality Management XV: the Knowledge Society, Berki, Nummenmaa, Sunley, Ross and Staples, eds., British Computer Society, pp. 225-240, 2007.
[13] G.N. Aranda, A. Vizcaino, A. Cechich y M. Piattini, “Choosing groupware tools and elicitation techniques according to stakeholders' features,” Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, vol. 3, pp. 68 – 75, 2005.
[14] S. Lauesen, Software requirements: Styles and techniques, Addison-Wesley, 2002.
[15] J. Kim y J. Courtney, “A survey of knowledge acquisition techniques and their relevance to managerial problem domains,” Decision Support Systems, vol. 4, pp. 269-284, 1988.
[16] B. Fazlollahi y M. Tanniru, "Selecting a requirements determination methodology-contingency approach revisited," Information and Management, vol. 21, no.5, pp. 291-303, 1991.
[17] M. Christel y K. Kang, "Issues in Requirements Elicitation," SEI Technical Report No: SEI-92-TR-012, Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Sept,1992.
[18] R. Proynova, B. Paech, A. Wicht y T. Wetter, “Use of personal values in requirements engineering - A research preview,” Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS, pp. 17-22, 2010.
[19] J. Hua, “Study on knowledge acquisition techniques,” Proceedings 2nd International Symposium on Intelligent Information Technology Application, pp. 181-185, 2008.
[20] C.J. Davis, R.M. Fuller, M.C. Tremblay y D.J. Berndt, “Communication challenges in requirements elicitation and the use of the repertory grid technique,” Journal Computer Information System, vol. 47, pp. 78-86, 2006.
[21] C. Coulin, D. Zowghi y A. Sahraoui, “A situational method engineering approach to requirements elicitation workshops in the software development process,” Software Process Improvement and Practice, vol.11, no.5, pp. 451-464, 2006.
[22] M. Eva, “Requirements acquisition for rapid applications development,” Information & Management, vol. 39, pp. 101-107, 2001.
[23] J.W. Moody, J.E. Blanton y P.H. Cheney, “A theoretically grounded approach to assist memory recall during information requirements determination,” Journal of Management Information Systems, vol.15, no.1, pp. 79-98, 1998.
[24] S. Kausar, S. Tariq, S. Riaz y A. Khanum, “Guidelines for the selection of elicitation techniques,” 6th International Conference on Emerging Technologies, pp. 265 – 269, 2010.
[25] S. Thew y A. Sutcliffe, “Investigating the Role of ‘Soft Issues’ in the RE Process,” Proc. of 16th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, pp. 63-66, 2008.
[26] S. Skidmore, “Introducing Systems Analysis,” NCC/Blackwell, pp. 74–85, 1994.
[27] S. Tiwari, S. Rathore y A. Gupta, “Selecting requirement elicitation techniques for software projects,” Sixth International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 1-10, 2012.
[28] M.E. Serna, “Analysis and selection to requirements elicitation techniques,” 7th Colombian Computing Congress (CCC), pp. 1-7, 2012.
[29] C.W. Holsapple, V. Raj y W.P. Wagner, “An experimental investigation of the impact of domain complexity,” Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 35, no 3, pp. 1084–1094, 2008.
[30] R. Agarwal y M. Tanniru, "Knowledge acquisition using structured interviewing: an empirical investigation," Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 7, no.1, pp. 123-140, 1990.
[31] G. Rugg, C. Corbridge, N. Major, A. Burton y N. Shadbolt, “A comparison of sorting techniques in knowledge acquisition,” Knowledge Acquisition, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 279-291, 1992.
[32] W.J. Lloyd, M.B. Rosson y J.D. Arthur, “Effectiveness of elicitation techniques in distributed requirements engineering,” Proceedings IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering, 2002.
[33] A. Burton, N. Shadbolt, G. Rugg, y A. Hedgecock, "The efficacy of knowledge elicitation techniques: a comparison across domains and levels of expertise," Knowledge Acquisition, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 167-178, 1990.
[34] A.P. Massey y W.A. Wallace, “Focus groups as a knowledge elicitation technique: an exploratory study,” IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol.: 3, no. 2, pp. 93 – 200, 1991.
[35] C.J. Chao y G. Salvendy, "Impact of cognitive abilities of experts on the effectiveness of elicited knowledge," Behaviour and Information Technology, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 174-182, 1995.
[36] G.J. Browne y M.B. Rogich, "An empirical investigation of user requirements elicitation: comparing the effectiveness of prompting techniques," Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 223-249, 2001.
[37] D. Damian y D. Zowghi, “The impact of stakeholders geographical distribution on managing requirements in a multi-site organization,” IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering, pp. 319-328, 2002.
[38] B. Crandall, “A comparative study of think aloud and critical decision knowledge elicitation methods,” SIGART Newsletter, vol. 108, pp. 144-146, 1989.
[39] M. Grabowski, "Knowledge acquisition methodologies: survey and empirical assessment", Proc. of the Ninth International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 47-54, 1988.
[40] B.P. McCloskey, J. Geiwitz y J. Kornell, "Empirical comparisons of knowledge acquisition techniques," Proc. of
the 35th Annual Meeting Human Factors Soc, vol. 1, pp. 268-272, 1991.
[41] J.M. Moore y F.M.I. Shipman, “A comparison of questionnaire based and GUI based requirements gathering,” Proc. XV IEEE Int. Conf. on Software Engineering, pp. 35-43, 2000.
[42] F. Scapolo y I. Miles, “Eliciting experts' knowledge: A comparison of two methods,” Original Research Article Technological Forecasting, vol. 73, no. 6, pp. 679-704, 2006.
[43] W. Wagner, Q. Chung, y M. Najdawi, "The impact of problem domains and knowledge acquisitions techniques: a content analysis of P/OM expert system case studies," Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 24, pp. 79-86, 2003.
[44] B. Corbridge, G. Rugg, N.P. Major, N.R. Shadbolt y A.M. Burton, "Laddering - technique and tool use in knowledge acquisition," Knowledge Acquisition, vol. 6, pp. 315-341, 1994.
[45] C. Holsapple y V. Raj, "Exploratory study of two KA methods," Expert Systems, vol. 11, no.2, pp. 77-87, 1994.
[46] M. Keil y E. Carmel, "Customer-developer links," Communications of the ACM, vol. 38, no.5, pp. 33-44, 1995.
[47] J. Sauer, S. Schramme y B. Ruttinger, “Knowledge acquisition in ecological product design: the effects of computer-mediated communication and elicitation method,” Behaviour and Information Technology, vol.19, no.5, pp. 315-327, 2000.
[48] S. Zapata, E. Torres, G. Sevilla, L. Aballay y M. Reus, “Effectiveness of traditional software requirement elicitation techniques applied in distributed software development scenarios,” XXXVIII Conferencia Latinoamericana en Informática, pp. 1-7, 2012.
[49] I. Hadar, P. Soffer y K. Kenzi, “The role of domain knowledge in requirements elicitation via interviews: an exploratory study,” Requirements Engineering, pp. 1-17, 2012.
[50] R. Ahmad, A. Tahir y Z. Kasirun, “An empirical assessment of the use of different communication modes for requirement elicitation and negotiation using students as a subject,” IEEE Symposium on Computers and Informatics, ISCI, pp. 70-74, 2012.
