Requirements Engineering and Process Improvement in Small Software Companies
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Business Process Management Journal
Abstract
Requirements Engineering and Process Improvement (REPI) has been used for some time by
software companies to achieve high quality software and gain international certification. However, most
Ugandan software companies have not yet fully taken it up. In most case requirements it is considered to
be for large companies, leaving Small and Medium Enterprises out. Moreover, little research has been
conducted to explore how Ugandan software organizations are handling REPI. Consequently, Ugandan
software companies have challenges in improving the quality of their software. It is on this basis that this
study sought to explore REPI uptake in Ugandan software companies.
Four software companies in Uganda participated in the study. Respondents were selected purposively
based of a set criterion. A qualitative research design was adapted to involve, document review, openended
questionnaires and interviews as the main data collection tools and techniques. The data were
themed and analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Findings indicate that software companies were involved more in requirements elicitation, analysis and
specification than in requirements validation and documentation. The SMEs did not have a defined REPI
approach and lacked knowledge about the availability of REPI models. Further, brainstorming,
observation and interviews were the main requirement elicitation methods used. The requirements were
mainly elicited from clients, users and management. Requirements databases and Word processors were
the main tools used to management requirements with little emphasis on CASE tools.
Description
Keywords
Requirements Engineering Process Improvement, Software Engineering, Requirements Elicitation
Citation
Kabaale, E., & Kituyi, G. M. (2015). A theoretical framework for requirements engineering and process improvement in small and medium software companies. Business Process Management Journal.