A Framework for Validating Requirements Engineering RE Process Improvements

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A Framework for Validating Requirements
Engineering (RE) Process Improvements

• Bhavani Palyagar
• PhD Student, ICS
• Supervisors Prof. Ray Offen and Dr. Debbie
  Richards

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Contents of this Presentation

• Research Motivation and Problem
• Proposed Solution
• Research Collaborations
• Status

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Research Motivation and Problem

• Motivation
• 1. Poor RE processes ?Poor requirements ?
  Rework ? Schedule and cost overruns (Published by
  Standish report 2003)
• 2. Metrics driven RE Process improvement is
  still unsolved
• Problem
• To arrive at a framework that examines an RE
  process, and measures its quality if found to be
  deficient, apply improvements and validate such
  improvements by measuring the RE process quality
  again.

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Contents of this Presentation

• Research Motivation and Problem
• Proposed Solution
• Research Collaborations
• Status

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Proposed Framework

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Measurement

• High-level (Quality Target)
• Effectiveness (Useful requirements / Cost)
• Efficiency (Useful requirements / Total
  requirements)
• Low-level
• Low-level parameters influence high-level
  parameters through a category of Factors
• Category A (RE Process itself)
• Category B (Change Management)
• Category C (Risk Management)

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Link RE Process Gaps to Requirements Defects

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Link high-level Parameters with Category A, B
and C Factors, and Low-level Parameters

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Contents of this Presentation

• Research Motivation and Problem
• Proposed Solution
• Research Collaborations
• Status

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Research Collaboration in Industry

• Need
• Industry 1 Large and complex software
  projects for government departments in
  Australia and USA, with distributed setup USA
  ? Australia ? India
• Industry 2 High assurance systems involving
  human subjects
• Proposed Activities in Industry
• Critical Success Factor

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Contents of this Presentation

• Research Motivation and Problem
• Proposed Solution
• Research Collaboration in Industry
• Status

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Status

• Significant literature survey
• Well-grounded framework (Presented in IEEE-RE 04
  Conference, and RE process measurement paper is
  accepted in AWRE 04)
• Research design in place
• Designed questionnaires and surveys for measuring
  RE processes
• Made significant progress in empirical research
• Applied for human ethics clearance

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Status

• Question
• Does this framework have a significant and
  demonstrable relation to the process improvement
  mandate in organizations, and will it actually
  measure the strengths and weaknesses of one or
  more RE processes in those organizations?
• Answer
• I Dont know ? I think so

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Timeline

• Dec 2004 June 2005 Empirical research complete
  in Industry 1 and Industry 2
• July 2005 Dec 2005 Validating research problem
  and proposed solution against empirical evidence,
  publishing evidence
• Jan 2006 June 2006 Generalizing research
  findings, publishing generalized findings and
  writing thesis
• July 2006 Jan 2007 Writing thesis and editing
  based on reviews
• Feb 2007 Thesis submission

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• Thank you