An approach based on design practices to specify requirements in agile projects

Abstract

The agile manifesto highlights a frequent communication with the customer to detail his/her needs and to validate the software requirements through frequent software deliveries. So, the agile methods treat the Software Requirements Specification (SRS) differently from the traditional development methods. User stories are one of the most widely used approaches to specify requirements in agile projects. However, empirical studies in the industry point out that user stories are targeted to customers, only cover simple functional requirements visible to the users, and do not address system and non-functional requirements that are also required for coding, testing, and maintaining. We propose an approach to specify requirements based on design practices targeted to the developer. We conducted an industrial case study during eight months to evaluate the proposed approach. The initial findings indicate that the SRS is closer to what will be implemented, and it meets the developers' expectations.