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A Faceted Taxonomy of Requirements Changes in Agile Contexts

Published: 01 October 2022 Publication History

Abstract

<italic>Background:</italic> Originally, developers aimed to identify most software requirements upfront in software development projects. However, agile methods explicitly encourage software requirements to be changed throughout development, i.e., many Requirements Changes (RCs) occur. <italic>Objective:</italic> The objective of this study is to better understand RCs and produce a taxonomy of RCs in agile contexts. <italic>Method:</italic> We ran a mixed-methods approach comprising a series of studies: an interview-based study (10 participants from New Zealand and Australia), a focused literature review, and an in-depth survey (40 participants world-wide). <italic>Results:</italic> Key characteristics of RCs in agile we found relate to different <italic>types</italic> and <italic>forms</italic>, agile RCs have multiple <italic>reasons</italic> and <italic>sources</italic>, they are brought by different <italic>carriers</italic>, and their emergence in agile is via a variety of <italic>events.</italic> <italic>Summary:</italic> The presented taxonomy provides a guide for software practitioners to use to help manage RC-related issues in agile contexts.

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    cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
    IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering  Volume 48, Issue 10
    Oct. 2022
    513 pages

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    IEEE Press

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    Published: 01 October 2022

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    • (2024)Supporting Emotional Intelligence, Productivity and Team Goals while Handling Software Requirements ChangesACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/366460033:6(1-38)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2024
    • (2024)Addressing Bad Feelings in Agile Software Project Contexts: Considering Team Welfare and Developer Mental HealthIEEE Software10.1109/MS.2024.337770341:4(44-50)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2024
    • (2024)Ethics in AI through the practitioner’s view: a grounded theory literature reviewEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10465-529:3Online publication date: 6-May-2024
    • (2023)A Framework for Emotion-Oriented Requirements Change Handling in Agile Software EngineeringIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2023.325314549:5(3325-3343)Online publication date: 1-May-2023
    • (2023)The Emotional Roller Coaster of Responding to Requirements Changes in Software EngineeringIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2022.317292549:3(1171-1187)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
    • (2023)The Impact of Personality on Requirements Engineering Activities: A Mixed-Methods StudyEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-023-10426-429:1Online publication date: 28-Dec-2023
    • (2022)The Influence of Human Aspects on Requirements Engineering-related Activities: Software Practitioners’ PerspectiveACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/354694332:5(1-37)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2022

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