The illusion of requirements in software development

@article{Ralph2012TheIO,
  title={The illusion of requirements in software development},
  author={Paul Ralph},
  journal={Requirements Engineering},
  year={2012},
  volume={18},
  pages={293-296}
}
  • P. Ralph
  • Published 30 March 2013
  • Computer Science
  • Requirements Engineering
This viewpoint explores the possibility that many software development projects may have no useful requirements. Specifically, for problems (e.g., knowledge worker burnout) with two completely different solutions (e.g., better tool support or hire more employees), an analyst may state a goal (e.g., decrease work hours) but more specific desiderata are contingent on the chosen solution. Furthermore, without fully exploring the design space, the designer cannot be sure whether there exists… 
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40 Citations
Background Citations
21
Methods Citations
3
Results Citations
2

40 Citations

Is Requirements Engineering Inherently Counterproductive?
  • P. Ralph, Rahul Mohanani
  • Computer Science
    2015 IEEE/ACM 5th International Workshop on the Twin Peaks of Requirements and Architecture
  • 2015
TLDR
This paper explores the possibility that requirements engineering is, in principle, detrimental to software project success and investigates decoupling the sense making aspects of requirements engineering from the problem structuring aspects.
The dimensions of software engineering success
TLDR
Investigation of the dimensions of software engineering success suggests that participants view their work as time-constrained projects with explicit clients and other stakeholders, and a proto-theory of success is proposed, which models success as the net impact on a particular stakeholder at a particular time.
The Two Paradigms of Software Design
TLDR
An Alternative Design Paradigm is synthesized, which views software development as an amethodical, improvisational, emotional process of simultaneously framing the problem and building artifacts to address it.
Developing and Evaluating Software Engineering Process Theories
  • P. Ralph
  • Business
    2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
  • 2015
TLDR
This paper attempts to clarify the nature and types of process theories, explore their development and provide specific guidance for their empirically evaluation.
Implications of Requirements Engineering on Software Design: A Cognitive Insight
  • Rahul Mohanani
  • Business
    2016 IEEE/ACM 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion (ICSE-C)
  • 2016
TLDR
The foremost objective of this research will be to explore the harmful effects of human cognitive biases on the designers’ ability to generate conceptual designs from a set of requirements, and then to mitigate the harmful results of biases by developing specific de-biasing technique(s) to enhance creativity of such design concepts.
New Frontiers for Requirements Engineering
TLDR
An alternative perspective on, and de-scription of, the discipline of RE is discussed and an advocate for the evolution of RE toward a discipline that supports the application of RE prac-tice to any domain is advocated.
Evaluating process theories in software engineering
TLDR
This paper attempts to clarify the nature of process theories, address some common misconceptions and elucidate the unique issues of process theory evaluation.
Requirements fixation: the effect of specification formality on design creativity
TLDR
The results of this dissertation suggest that more formal and structured presentations of Desiderata cause requirements fixation, the tendency to attribute undue confidence and importance to desiderata presented as formal requirements statements---that affects design creativity, and thus undermines software engineering success.
How Templated Requirements Specifications Inhibit Creativity in Software Engineering
TLDR
The results suggest that designers fixate on desiderata presented as templated requirements specifications, hindering critical thinking and requirements fixation mediates the negative relationship between specification formality and creativity.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Software-Based Products and Services: A Requirements Engineering Perspective
TLDR
To improve customer satisfaction on software products and services, a 2D4E framework based on requirements and reconfiguration engineering (RRE) and total quality management (TQM) is proposed in this study.
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