A Qualitative Study on Non-Functional Requirements in Agile Software Development

Aleksander Jarzebowicz,Pawel Weichbroth

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3064424

Aleksander Jarzebowicz, Pawel Weichbroth

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3064424

Copy DOI

Journal: IEEE Access	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
Citations: 67	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Gdańsk University of Technology

Abstract

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Context: Widespread use of agile software development (ASD) methods can be observed nowadays. Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are often reported to be a problematic issue for agile projects, since ASD methods tend to neglect NFRs while focusing on incremental delivery of functional features. Despite that, only very few studies have explored the requirements engineering practices used in ASD and dedicated particularly to NFRs. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Objective: We aimed to identify and investigate the practices used in industrial ASD projects to identify, elicit and document NFRs. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Method: We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) and used its findings to prepare an interview guide. We then conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 experienced practitioners. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results: The SLR revealed a number of strategies related to the timing of NFR identification as well as 13 elicitation practices and 20 documentation techniques. At least some of these findings show discrepancies between ASD theory and practice. The interviews provided a more in-depth understanding of the practices used, and their context. The main findings from the interviews include: practitioners’ attempts to start identifying NFRs early in the project, a lack of elicitation techniques aimed at NFRs only, and different choices about documentation techniques, including the additional techniques introduced to cope specifically with NFRs. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusions: It was not confirmed that requirements engineering activities related to NFRs are perceived by ASD practitioners as a problem, as they developed effective practices to deal with this issue. Moreover, our findings show that different approaches to NFRs can be used and give satisfactory results.

Highlights

During the last two decades, agile software development (ASD) methods have gained recognition and have been widely adopted by the IT industry worldwide [1]–[3]
Inclusion criteria: (I1) peer-reviewed articles; (I2) articles in English; (I3) articles published since 2008; (I4) articles related to the software engineering domain; (I5) articles concerning agile requirements engineering (ARE) and non-functional requirements (NFRs)
As for the problems related to requirements documentation techniques, our findings indicate that they are encountered, but effective solutions are used by practitioners

Summary

Introduction

During the last two decades, agile software development (ASD) methods have gained recognition and have been widely adopted by the IT industry worldwide [1]–[3]. The problems of: neglecting NFR, while focusing on functionality [6]–[8], too-minimal requirements documentation to capture NFRs [6], [8] and insufficiency of available ARE techniques to deal with NFRs [7], [9], [11] are reported as problems encountered in practice. Such challenges could result in a major obstacle in technology acceptance and its further use, since there are numerous examples showing that insufficient

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion