Abstract
Requirements problems are widely acknowledged to have impact on the effectiveness of the software development process. In order to improve the requirements engineering (RE) process and to reduce requirements problems, Sommerville et al. [1] have developed a requirements maturity model. Literature shows that the measurement process, designed in this model, is very confused and can lead organizations to incorrect results. This is because the measurement process is ambiguous and no strategic and systematic approach is used to decide different scores for various RE practices.
The objective of this paper is to propose a measurement instrument for Sommerville et al.’s model to effectively measure the maturity of the RE process. The main purpose of proposing this measurement instrument is to develop better ways to assist practitioners in effectively measuring the maturity of the RE process. This instrument provides a very practical structure with which to measure the maturity of the RE process. I have tested this instrument in one case study where only one category of RE process, i.e. ‘requirements elicitation’ was used as an exemplar. The case study results show that the measurement instrument has potential to assist practitioners in effectively measuring the maturity of ‘requirements elicitation’ category of the RE process. Thus, I recommend organizations trial this instrument for other categories of RE process in order to further evaluate its effectiveness in the domain of RE process.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Sommerville, I., Sawyer, P., Viller, S.: Requirements Process Improvement Through the Phased Introduction of Good Practice. Software Process-Improvement and Practice (3), 19–34 (1997)
Sommerville, I.: Software Engineering, 5th edn. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1996)
Hall, T., Beecham, S., Rainer, A.: Requirements Problems in Twelve Software Companies: An Empirical Analysis. IEE Proceedings - Software (August), 153–160 (2002)
El Emam, K., Madhavji, H.N.: A Field Study of Requirements Engineering Practices in Information Systems Development. In: Second International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, pp. 68–80 (1995)
Sommerville, I., Sawyer, P., Viller, S.: Improving the Requirements Process. In: Fourth International Workshop on Requirements Engineering: Foundation of Software Quality, pp. 71–84 (1998)
Niazi, M.: Improving the Requirements Engineering Process: A Process Oriented Approach. In: Thirteenth Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS 2002), pp. 885–898 (2002)
Niazi, M., Shastry, S.: Role of Requirements Engineering in Software development Process: An empirical study. In: IEEE International Multi-Topic Conference (INMIC 2003), pp. 402–407 (2003)
van Lamsweerde, A.: Requirements Engineering in the year 2000: A research perspective. In: 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), pp. 5–19 (2000)
Kamsties, E., Hormann, K., Schlich, M.: Requirements Engineering in Small and Medium Enterprises. Requirements Engineering 3(2), 84–90 (1998)
Nikula, U., Fajaniemi, J., Kalviainen, H.: Management View on Current Requirements Engineering Practices in Small and Medium Enterprises. In: Fifth Australian Workshop on Requirements Engineering, pp. 81–89 (2000)
Nuseibeh, B., Easterbrook, S.: Requirements Engineering: a roadmap. In: 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 35–46 (2000)
Siddiqi, J., Chandra, S.: Requirements Engineering: The Emerging Wisdom. IEEE Software 13(2), 15–19 (1996)
Niazi, M., Shastry, S.: Critical success factors for the improvement of requirements engineering process. In: International conference on software engineering research and practice, pp. 433–439 (2003)
Paulk, M., Weber, C., Curtis, B., Chrissis, M.: A high maturity example: Space shuttle onboard software. In: The Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for improving software process. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1994)
Beecham, S., Hall, T., Rainer, A.: Building a requirements process improvement model. Department of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, Technical report No: 378 (2003)
Niazi, M., Wilson, D., Zowghi, D.: A Maturity Model for the Implementation of Software Process Improvement: An empirical study. Journal of Systems and Software 74(2), 155–172 (2005)
Niazi, M., Wilson, D., Zowghi, D.: A Framework for Assisting the Design of Effective Software Process Improvement Implementation Strategies. Accepted for publication: Journal of Systems and Software (2005)
Daskalantonakis, M.K.: Achieving higher SEI levels. IEEE Software 11(4), 17–24 (1994)
Sommerville, I., Sawyer, P.: Requirements Engineering - A good Practice Guide. Wiley, Chichester (1997)
Diaz, M., Sligo, J.: How Software Process Improvement helped Motorola. IEEE software 14(5), 75–81 (1997)
Yin, R.K.: Applications of Case Study Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1993)
Cooper, D., Schindler, P.: Business research methods, 7th edn. McGraw-Hill, New York (2001)
ISO/DIS-9241-11: International Standards Organization, ISO DIS 9241-11: Guidance on Usability (1994)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Niazi, M. (2005). An Instrument for Measuring the Maturity of Requirements Engineering Process. In: Bomarius, F., Komi-Sirviö, S. (eds) Product Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3547. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11497455_44
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11497455_44
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-26200-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31640-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)