Towards a Model about Quality of Software Requirements Specification in Agile Projects

Abstract

The quality of Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) is important to gain a competitive advantage in the software industry. Although the use of agile methods has grown in recent years, empirical studies conducted in industry identified several problems related to SRS in the context of agile projects. The goal of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of the quality of SRS in Agile Software Development (ASD) and build an explanatory model about it. We use a mixed method research strategy for creating a rich description of the factors that affect the quality of SRS in ASD. First, we conducted a systematic mapping study, then we performed a cross-case analysis of two software organizations: one small private organization and a large public organization. We built an initial model from this analysis. The findings were that SRS in agile projects should be directed to the development team, so it should be close to what will be implemented. The fragmentation of the description of the requirements in various artifacts and excessive detail were considered factors that compromise the quality of the SRS.