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Analysing Requirements Communication Using Use Case Specification and User stories

Published: 20 September 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Effective requirements communication is essential in software development projects due to the importance of understanding the requirements throughout the software development cycle. Software requirements can be specified in different formats, for instance using free texts or more structured forms, such as use cases and user stories used in Behavior Driven Development (BDD). We present a comparative analysis on the requirements communication dynamics using use case specification and user stories as the basis for mockups creation. We carried out an exploratory empirical study involving 16 students. The study comprised 3 steps: requirements specification, mockups construction, and inspection to investigate whether the mockups were in accordance with the specifications. Results show that there is no significant difference in using use case specification or user stories to communicate software requirements. Our findings suggest that different specification formats can provide similar results while communicating requirements, nonetheless the human factor should not be neglected.

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Cited By

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  • (2023)Behaviour driven development: A systematic mapping studyJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2023.111749203(111749)Online publication date: Sep-2023
  • (2022)What do students prefer - Use Cases, User Story or Design Thinking Techniques?Proceedings of the XXI Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality10.1145/3571473.3571475(1-10)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2022
  • (2022)LICOR: Beyond the Design System. A Proposal to Empower Teams to Develop Software in Compliance with the Principles of Accessibility, Usability, and Privacy by Design in the Extreme Contexts and Challenging Domains Post-COVID-19HCI International 2022 – Late Breaking Posters10.1007/978-3-031-19679-9_18(139-147)Online publication date: 24-Nov-2022
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      cover image ACM Other conferences
      SBES '17: Proceedings of the XXXI Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering
      September 2017
      409 pages
      ISBN:9781450353267
      DOI:10.1145/3131151
      Publication rights licensed to ACM. ACM acknowledges that this contribution was authored or co-authored by an employee, contractor or affiliate of a national government. As such, the Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this article, or to allow others to do so, for Government purposes only.

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      • SBC: Brazilian Computer Society
      • CNPq: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecn
      • CAPES: Brazilian Higher Education Funding Council

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 20 September 2017

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      Author Tags

      1. Behavior Driven Development
      2. Requirements communication
      3. experimental study
      4. requirements specification
      5. use case

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      • Research-article
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      SBES'17
      SBES'17: 31st Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering
      September 20 - 22, 2017
      CE, Fortaleza, Brazil

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      SBES '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 42 of 134 submissions, 31%;
      Overall Acceptance Rate 147 of 427 submissions, 34%

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      Cited By

      View all
      • (2023)Behaviour driven development: A systematic mapping studyJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2023.111749203(111749)Online publication date: Sep-2023
      • (2022)What do students prefer - Use Cases, User Story or Design Thinking Techniques?Proceedings of the XXI Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality10.1145/3571473.3571475(1-10)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2022
      • (2022)LICOR: Beyond the Design System. A Proposal to Empower Teams to Develop Software in Compliance with the Principles of Accessibility, Usability, and Privacy by Design in the Extreme Contexts and Challenging Domains Post-COVID-19HCI International 2022 – Late Breaking Posters10.1007/978-3-031-19679-9_18(139-147)Online publication date: 24-Nov-2022
      • (2021)A framework for evaluating and improving requirements specifications based on the developers and testers perspectiveRequirements Engineering10.1007/s00766-021-00352-626:4(481-508)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2021
      • (2020)Stimulating the development of soft skills in Software Engineering Education through Design ThinkingProceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3422392.3422488(690-699)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
      • (2019)Why use case specifications are hard to use in generating prototypes?IET Software10.1049/iet-sen.2018.523913:6(510-517)Online publication date: Dec-2019

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