Volume 16 Number 3 (May. 2021)
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JSW 2021 Vol.16(3): 107-129 ISSN: 1796-217X
doi: 10.17706/jsw.16.3.107-129

Requirements Engineering: An Industrial Survey in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

A. Alzayed*

Computer & Information System Department, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET): P.O.Box: 65130, Almansouriya, Kuwait 35652.

Abstract—Requirements engineering (RE), the process of defining the requirements of a system, is critical to the successful implementation of software projects. Although many studies have been globally conducted on the different facets of RE in software engineering, studies explicitly focusing on the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been scarce. GCC-specific RE research studies are needed because of the unique cultural characteristics and common work ethics in GCC countries. Besides, the investigation of the state of RE practices in the countries of the GCC is crucial as the globalization of software development becomes imminent. This study compares the state of RE practices within the six countries of the GCC, namely, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman, using six RE factors. To understand commonalities and differences in the RE practices and methods, 163 software practitioners in GCC countries are surveyed in this study. The results show that the RE practices are relatively similar among the six countries, with subtle differences. Initiating software-related projects with unclear requirements and undefined project scopes are the two major limitations of the RE practices among the survey participants. The results of this study contribute to providing project managers and system analysts, who are working globally and within the GCC countries, with valuable decision-making tools to help them consider the identified RE techniques, methods, and challenges and their related risks early in their software development projects

Index Terms—Requirements engineering, gulf cooperation council, requirements engineering practices, project success, software projects.

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Cite: A. Alzayed, "Requirements Engineering: An Industrial Survey in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries," Journal of Software vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 107-109, 2021.

Copyright © 2021 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0)

General Information

ISSN: 1796-217X (Online)
Frequency:  Quarterly
Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Antanas Verikas
Executive Editor: Ms. Yoyo Y. Zhou
Abstracting/ Indexing: DBLP, EBSCO, CNKIGoogle Scholar, ProQuest, INSPEC(IET), ULRICH's Periodicals Directory, WorldCat, etc
E-mail: jsweditorialoffice@gmail.com
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