Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Integrating Research and Practice in Software Engineering pp 145–158Cite as

On Importance of Non-functional Requirements in Agile Software Projects—A Survey

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 851))

Abstract

Context. Among many Agile software development practices, over 30 concern Requirements Engineering (RE). However, none of them mentions explicitly non-functional requirements (NFRs). The question arises – how important are NFRs in Agile software projects? Method. We conducted a survey asking Agile software development practitioners how they perceive the importance of having NFRs defined in their projects. Then, we juxtaposed the answers with their opinions on the perceived importance of 31 Agile RE practices. Results. The opinions of 118 respondents from a wide range of countries around the globe allowed us to determine how important it is to define NFRs. Moreover, we showed their importance from the perspective of the ranking of Agile RE practices. We also identified some relationships between the demographic data such as experience and the perceived importance of requirements concerning quality. Conclusions. We found that over 77% of respondents perceive having NFRs defined in Agile software project as at least important, and for 30% it is critical. Also, the perceived importance of NFRs increases with the increase of respondents’ experience.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Ameller, D., Franch, X.: How do software architects consider Non-Functional Requirements: a survey. In: REFSQ (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Beck, K., Beedle, M., van Bennekum, A., Cockburn, A., Cunningham, W., Fowler, M., Grenning, J., Highsmith, J., Hunt, A., Jeffries, R., Kern, J., Marick, B., Martin, R.C., Mellor, S., Schwaber, K., Sutherland, J., Thomas, D.: Manifesto for agile software development (2001). http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

  3. Boehm, B., In, H.: Identifying quality-requirement conflicts. IEEE Softw. 13(2), 25–35 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Breitman, K.K., Leite, J.C.S., Finkelstein, A.: The world sa stage: a survey on requirements engineering using a real-life case study. J. Braz. Comput. Soc. 6(1), 13–37 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Buchalcevova, A.: Research of the use of Agile methodologies in the Czech Republic. In: Information Systems Development. Springer (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cao, L., Ramesh, B.: Agile requirements engineering practices: an empirical study. Software, IEEE 25(1) (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Charmaz, K.: Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Sage (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Chow, T., Cao, D.B.: A survey study of critical success factors in agile software projects. J. Syst. Softw. 81(6), 961–971 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Diebold, P., Dahlem, M.: Agile practices in practice: a mapping study. In: Proceeding of 18th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering. ACM (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Eckhardt, J., Vogelsang, A., Fernández, D.M.: Are “non-functional” requirements really non-functional? an investigation of non-functional requirements in practice. In: International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), pp. 832–842. IEEE/ACM (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Elshandidy, H., Mazen, S.: Agile and traditional requirements engineering: a survey. Internat. J. Sci. Eng. Res. 9, (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Finkelstein, A., Dowell, J.: A comedy of errors: the London Ambulance Service case study. In: Proceeding on 8th International Work Software specific Design, p. 2 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Fontana, R.M., Fontana, I.M., da Rosa Garbuio, P.A., Reinehr, S., Malucelli, A.: Processes versus people: how should agile software development maturity be defined? J. Syst. Softw. 97, (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Glinz, M.: On non-functional requirements. In: 15th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2007), pp. 21–26 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Groen, E., Kopczynska, S., Hauer, M., Krafft, T.D., Doerr, J.: Users – the hidden software product quality experts. In: International Requirements Engineering Conference (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Guzman, L., Oriol, M., Rodríguez, P., Franch, X., Jedlitschka, A., Oivo, M.: How can quality awareness support rapid software development? In: REFSQ (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Hollander, M., Wolfe, D.A.: Nonparametric statistical methods. Wiley (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Hussain, Z., Slany, W., Holzinger, A.: Current state of agile user-centered design: a survey. In: Proceeding of 5th Symposium of the Workgroup HCI and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society on HCI and Usability for e-Inclusion. Springer (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Inayat, I., Salim, S.S., Marczak, S., Daneva, M., Shamshirband, S.: A systematic literature review on agile requirements engineering practices and challenges. Comput. Hum. Behav. 51, (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Kalinowski, M., Felderer, M., Conte, T., Spinola, R., Prikladnicki, R., Winkler, D., Fernández, D.M., Wagner, S.: Preventing incomplete/hidden requirements: reflections on survey data from Austria and Brazil. In: International Conference on Software Quality, pp. 63–78. Springer (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kassab, M.: An empirical study on the requirements engineering practices for agile software development. In: 2014 40th EUROMICRO Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), pp. 254–261. IEEE (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Kitchenham, B.A., Pfleeger, S.L.: In: Shull, F., Singer, J., Sjøberg D. (eds.) Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering, vol. 93, Chap. Personal Opinion Surveys. Springer (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kopczynska, S., Ochodek, M., Nawrocki, J.: An empirical study on catalog of non-functional requirement templates: Usefulness and maintenance issues. Inf. Softw, Technol (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Kurapati, N., Manyam, V.S.C., Petersen, K.: Agile software development practice adoption survey. In: Agile processes in software engineering and extreme programming, pp. 16–30. Springer (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Lindstrom, D.R.: Five ways to destroy a development project. IEEE Softw. 10(5), 55–58 (1993)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  26. Nuseibeh, B.: Ariane 5: who dunnit? IEEE Softw. 14(3), 15–16 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Ochodek, M., Kopczynska, S.: Perceived importance of agile requirements engineering practices - a survey. J. Syst. Softw. 143, (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Palomares, C., Quer, C., Franch, X.: Requirements reuse and requirement patterns: a state of the practice survey. Empir. Softw. Eng. pp. 1–44 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Papatheocharous, E., Andreou, A.S.: Empirical evidence and state of practice of software agile teams. J. Softw.: Evol. Process. 26(9) (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Punter, T., Ciolkowski, M., Freimut, B., John, I.: Conducting on-line surveys in software engineering. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ISESE). IEEE (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Salo, O., Abrahamsson, P.: Agile methods in European embedded software development organisations: a survey on the actual use and usefulness of Extreme Programming and Scrum. IET Softw. 2(1) (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Stavru, S.: A critical examination of recent industrial surveys on agile method usage. J. Syst. Softw. 94, (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. VersionOne inc: The 11th annual state of agile report. Tech. rep., VersionOne inc. (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Wang, X., Zhao, L., Wang, Y., Sun, J.: The role of requirements engineering practices in agile development: an empirical study. In: Proceeding of 1st Asia Pacific Requirements Engineering Symposium, APRES. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (2014)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Williams, L.: What agile teams think of agile principles. Communications of the ACM 55(4), (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Höst, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslén, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering. Springer Science & Business Media (2012)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants of our study for sharing their opinions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Poznan University of Technology, Piotrowo 2, 60-965, Poznań, Poland

    Sylwia Kopczyńska, Mirosław Ochodek & Jerzy Nawrocki

Authors
  1. Sylwia Kopczyńska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mirosław Ochodek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jerzy Nawrocki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sylwia Kopczyńska .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computer Science, Bialystok University of Technology, Białystok, Poland

    Stan Jarzabek

  2. Institute of Information Technology, Lodz University of Technology, Łódź, Poland

    Aneta Poniszewska-Marańda

  3. Faculty of Computer Science and Management, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wrocław, Poland

    Lech Madeyski

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Kopczyńska, S., Ochodek, M., Nawrocki, J. (2020). On Importance of Non-functional Requirements in Agile Software Projects—A Survey. In: Jarzabek, S., Poniszewska-Marańda, A., Madeyski, L. (eds) Integrating Research and Practice in Software Engineering. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 851. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26574-8_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation