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A framework for evaluating and improving requirements specifications based on the developers and testers perspective

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Abstract

Requirements specifications are essential to properly communicate requirements among the software development team members. However, each role in the team has different informational needs in order to perform their activities. Thus, the requirements engineer should provide the necessary information to meet each team member's necessities to reduce errors in software development due to inadequate or insufficient communication. Although some research is concerned with communicating requirements among clients and analysts, no related research has been found to evaluate and improve requirements communication within the software development team. With this in mind, we present the ReComP framework, which assists in the identification of problems in the artifacts used to communicate requirements, identification of informational requirements for each role of the development team, and provide improvement suggestions to address requirements communication problems. ReComP was developed using the Design Science Research (DSR) method and this paper presents the results of two DSR cycles considering the use of ReComP for the developer and tester roles by using, respectively, user stories and use cases as requirements specifications. The results provide evidence that ReComP helps software development teams to identify and improve issues in the requirements specifications used for project communication. In two independent studies, ReComP was able to decrease the frequency of problems by 77% in user stories identified by developers and the frequency of all (100%) problems in use cases identified by testers.

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Technical report available [52].

Notes

  1. We defined ReComP framework according to the Cambridge dictionary, “a supporting structure around which something can be built” and “a system of rules, ideas, or beliefs that is used to plan or decide something”.

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Acknowledgments

This research, according to Article 48 of Decree nº 6.008/2006, was partially funded by Samsung Electronics of Amazonia Ltda, under the terms of Federal Law nº 8.387/1991, through agreement nº 003/2019, signed with ICOMP/UFAM. This work was supported by the Foundation for Research Support of the State of Amazonas (FAPEAM)—POSGRAD, and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel—Brazil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001. Besides, we recognize the financial support provided by CNPq through process 314174/2020-6 and FAPEAM 062.00150/2020. UNIRIO through process no. PPQ-UNIRIO 01/2019 e 04/2020. We thank all participants in the empirical study and the researchers of the USES-UFAM research group for their valuable contributions in carrying out this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, AM, Brazil

    Ana Carolina Oran, Bruno Gadelha & Tayana Conte

  2. Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Gleison Santos

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  1. Ana Carolina Oran
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Contributions

Ana Carolina Oran: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft, Visualization. Gleison Santos: Validation, Writing—Review and Editing, Supervision. Bruno Gadelha: Methodology, Verification, Validation, Writing—Review and Editing. Tayana Conte: Validation, Writing—Review and Editing, Supervision.

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Correspondence to Ana Carolina Oran.

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Oran, A.C., Santos, G., Gadelha, B. et al. A framework for evaluating and improving requirements specifications based on the developers and testers perspective. Requirements Eng 26, 481–508 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-021-00352-6

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