Calculating completeness of software project scope definition

Abstract

ContextSoftware project plan is the basis of the project execution, and its quality depends on completeness of software scope definition. A method is required that should gauge the completeness of different aspects of scope definition, thus, providing guidance to practitioners to reconsider areas that have not been defined well. ObjectiveThis paper aims to evaluate completeness of software project scope definition. It identifies a detailed list of different aspects of software project scope definition, and builds a method where numerical score can be assigned to a scope definition. MethodA detailed list of different elements of software project scope definition is identified through literature. These elements are then empirically evaluated through an electronic survey, conducted with the industrial experts. Once finalized, these elements are ranked and assigned weights to systematically build a scorecard that is used to calculate scope definition score. Evaluation of the proposed method is done through a series of formal experiments. ResultsEvaluation results suggest that the proposed method is useful not only in calculating completeness of software projects scope definition, but it also serves as a guide for practitioners to determine specific aspects that require further consideration.