2017/02/24 by Jakob Mund, Mund, Jakob, Henning Femmer +5 · 2 citations
Computer Science · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Software Engineering (cs.SE) #Software Engineering Research #Software Engineering Techniques and Practices #Software Reliability and Analysis Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1702.07656
openalex publication_date 2017/02/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Background: Requirements Engineering is crucial for project success, and to\nthis end, many measures for quality assurance of the software requirements\nspecification (SRS) have been proposed. Goal: However, we still need an\nempirical understanding on the extent to which SRS are created and used in\npractice, as well as the degree to which the quality of an SRS matters to\nsubsequent development activities. Method: We studied the relevance of SRS by\nrelying on survey research and explored the impact of quality defects in SRS by\nrelying on a controlled experiment. Results: Our results suggest that the\nrelevance of SRS quality depends both on particular project characteristics and\nwhat is considered as a quality defect; for instance, the domain of safety\ncritical systems seems to motivate for an intense usage of SRS as a means for\ncommunication whereas defects hampering the pragmatic quality do not seem to be\nas relevant as initially thought. Conclusion: Efficient and effective quality\nassurance measures must be specific for carefully characterized contexts and\ncarefully select defect classes.\n