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Linking business and requirements engineering: is solution planning a missing activity in software product companies?

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Abstract

A strong link between strategy and product development is important, since companies need to select requirements for forthcoming releases. However, in practice, connecting requirements engineering (RE) and business planning is far from trivial. This paper describes the lessons learned from four software product companies that have recognized the need for more business-oriented long-term planning. The study was conducted using the action research approach. We identified five practices that seem to strengthen the link between business decisions and RE. These are (1) explicating the planning levels and time horizons; (2) separating the planning of products’ business goals from R&D resource allocation; (3) planning open-endedly with a pre-defined rhythm; (4) emphasizing whole-product thinking; and (5) making solution planning visible. To support whole-product thinking and solution planning, we suggest that companies create solution concepts. The purpose of the solution concept is to provide a big picture of the solution and guide RE activities.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes) and the participating companies. The authors warmly thank the participating companies for their cooperation and willingness to share their experiences and data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software Business and Engineering Institute, Helsinki University of Technology, P. O. Box 9210, 02015, TKK, Finland

    Laura Lehtola, Marjo Kauppinen, Jarno Vähäniitty & Marko Komssi

Authors
  1. Laura Lehtola
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  2. Marjo Kauppinen
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  3. Jarno Vähäniitty
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  4. Marko Komssi
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Correspondence to Marjo Kauppinen.

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Lehtola, L., Kauppinen, M., Vähäniitty, J. et al. Linking business and requirements engineering: is solution planning a missing activity in software product companies?. Requirements Eng 14, 113–128 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-009-0078-8

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