Abstract
Requirements prioritization is essential for development of quality software products. Requirements prioritization helps focus on the most important requirements between the available software requirements. This process is also called preserving core vision according to customer viewpoint or managing the quality requirements. Many requirements prioritization techniques have been proposed in the Software Engineering field. However, one requirement prioritization technique can only be generalized for some software projects. This research effort aims to develop a sustainable hybrid model for requirements prioritization, utilizing critical software project factors. The prioritization technique is shortlisted from a pool of software prioritization techniques, based on these project factors and their quantized scores. The proposed model is equipped with state-of-the-art literature to provide a customized prioritization technique improving the requirements prioritization process for a specific software project. The paper also presents popular software prioritization techniques used in the software industry and an extensive comparison using a thorough empirical analysis. Finally, the quantization of the software project factors for each technique has been assessed for better understanding, and a sustainable hybrid model has been constructed. With the proposed hybrid model, requirements prioritization in software development has been controlled effectively, reducing the failure risks and increasing the overall benefit and success rate. The success of the proposed hybrid approach is verified with two software case studies attaining satisfactory results and improving the organization's productivity by incorporating pivotal software requirements on which all the stakeholders agree. Furthermore, an automated approach will be developed by implementing the proposed approach to benefit from human–machine collaboration, improving user satisfaction by incorporating end-user opinions effectively and timely.
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Data Availability
The data used to support the findings of this research study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This research is funded by Research Supporting Project Number (RSPD2023R553), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Conceptualization, HA, and JAK; methodology, SS; software, MSA; validation, KA, and MA; formal analysis, JAK; investigation, HA; resources, SS; data curation, HA; writing—original draft preparation, MSA; writing—review and editing, JAK; visualization, MSA; supervision, KA, project administration, MA and KA; funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Appendix A: Demographics of respondents
Appendix A: Demographics of respondents
Sr. no. | Job title | Age | Experience (years) | Company size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Project Manager | 40 | 5 | Large |
2 | Project Manager | 34 | 7 | Large |
3 | Associate Vice President | 39 | 21 | Large |
4 | Project Director | 36 | 11 | Large |
5 | Senior Team Lead | 39 | 4 | Large |
6 | Senior Project Manager | 41 | 6 | Large |
7 | Program Manager | 43 | 7 | Large |
8 | Corresponder | 35 | 9 | Large |
9 | IT Consultant | 37 | 10 | Large |
10 | IT Consultant | 40 | 8 | Large |
11 | Project Director | 34 | 14 | Large |
12 | Client Relationship Manager | 38 | 9 | Large |
13 | Senior Developer | 39 | 8 | Large |
14 | Project Manager | 36 | 13 | Large |
15 | Business Analyst | 39 | 10 | Small |
16 | Project Consultant | 41 | 7 | Small |
17 | Project Coordinator | 43 | 6 | Large |
18 | Project Manager | 40 | 10 | Large |
19 | Senior Team Lead | 35 | 4 | Medium |
20 | Developer | 40 | 3 | Large |
21 | Project Manager | 37 | 7 | Small |
22 | Senior Developer | 39 | 5 | Medium |
23 | Business Analyst | 38 | 6 | Medium |
24 | Program Manager | 36 | 10 | Large |
25 | Department vice president | 46 | 18 | Large |
26 | Project Manager | 33 | 5 | Small |
27 | Developer | 38 | 3 | Medium |
28 | Project Manager | 41 | 8 | Large |
29 | Project Consultant | 33 | 3 | Medium |
30 | Program Manager | 45 | 6 | Large |
31 | Software Engineer | 38 | 3 | Medium |
32 | Project Leader | 34 | 5 | Large |
33 | Project Coordinator | 32 | 3 | Medium |
34 | Process Consultant | 33 | 9 | Large |
35 | Project Coordinator | 30 | 6 | Large |
36 | Assistant Manager | 41 | 12 | Large |
37 | Senior Team Lead | 43 | 4 | Medium |
38 | Business Analyst | 35 | 6 | Medium |
39 | Project Manager | 42 | 7 | Large |
40 | Project Leader | 37 | 5 | Large |
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Arshad, H., Shaheen, S., Khan, J.A. et al. A novel hybrid requirement’s prioritization approach based on critical software project factors. Cogn Tech Work 25, 305–324 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-023-00729-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-023-00729-3