Simulation-based Feature Selection for Software Requirements Baseline

Abstract

Requirements baseline is the set of features intended to be delivered in a specific version of a software application under development. During this decade the constant growth of software products along with the evident pressure on time to market has made the selection of features a crucial step for a software project success. It is both a challenging and time consuming process that requires a substantial expertise from project managers. Prioritization of features is one of the means that help in making the choice. It is typically performed by grouping features into three priority levels: critical, important, and useful. Critical and important features are seen as “must have”, while useful features are qualified as “nice-to-have”. Paradoxically, the latter plays an important role in customer satisfaction and achieving the “wow” factor. A good selection of useful features identifies efficiently those features that can be delivered by the end of the project without any additional delay. So far, managers have little support in this process increasing the chances of making a poor selection. To answer this need, we propose a new modeling and simulation approach that takes into account feature priorities and calculates the probabilities of having useful features implemented within the timeframe of the project. It also incorporates uncertainties related to human resources availability providing a more realistic schedule and estimation.