Norman Riegel

Using Enhanced Wiki-based Solutions for Managing Requirements

The main phases during requirements engineering include the elicitation, specification, validation, and management of requirements in order to understand what the system must do. In the age of distributed and collaborative work, suitable tools and concepts are needed to support requirements activities in this context. Based on requirements derived from basic practices of the ReqMan framework, we will introduce first solution concepts for a wiki-based requirements management tool.

A Systematic Literature Review of Requirements Prioritization Criteria

[Context & motivation] Requirements prioritization is typically applied in order to determine which requirements or features should be included in a certain release or implemented first. While most requirements prioritization approaches prescribe a fixed set of prioritization criteria that have to be assessed during the prioritization process, there is often a need for criteria that are customized to the specific project situation. [Question/problem] However, determining customized prioritization criteria is a time-consuming and laborious task. Instead of an in-depth analysis, criteria are often identified by gut feeling, which is error-prone and bears the risk of choosing misleading criteria. [Principal ideas/results] This paper aims at identifying and categorizing prioritization criteria discussed in the vast body of prioritization literature for software development. We describe a systematic literature review and, as a result, present a consolidated prioritization criteria model. [Contribution] Besides a comprehensive overview of prioritization criteria discussed in the literature, this paper introduces a classification schema that allows researchers and practitioners to identify prioritization criteria and related literature in a time-saving manner.

From business processes to software services and vice versa—an improved transition through service-oriented requirements engineering

Business processes need to be agile and flexible to help organizations stay competitive. For this purpose, SOA promises the reuse of already existing information system functionality for enabling enterprises to change the business processes more quickly. However, many promises made by SOA authors have not found their way into practice, because methodological guidance that constructively assures a more successful SOA application is still missing. In this article, service‐oriented requirements engineering is therefore introduced as a discipline aiming at a better and more systematic handling and alignment of SOA and Business Process Management. Our industrial experience in this regard is also described. Copyright

Deriving Software Services from Business Processes of Representative Customer Organizations

When providing software in terms of web services, software developing organizations are faced with the challenge of identifying services that maximize the profit by fitting the requirements of as many customers as possible. They do not only have to know which features are required but also what the right functional range of a service is in order to optimize the service demand. In this paper, we present a method on how to systematically package service functionality based on the business processes of some representative customers. We describe how valuable functions can be systematically derived from business processes, and how they can be grouped into services.

IT Capability-Based Business Process Design through Service-Oriented Requirements Engineering

Besides goals and regulations, IT is also considered as a driver for business process development or evolution. However, as reuse becomes increasingly important in many organizations due to return of investment considerations, the available IT is not only an enabler but also a constraint for business process design. In this paper, we present a systematic approach that explicitly takes into account the capabilities of a (service-oriented) reuse infrastructure and that guides the business process design accordingly. An important element in our approach is the notion of conceptual services, which we have experienced as appropriate candidates for communicating the capabilities of a reuse infrastructure to business people.

The role of quality aspects for the adequacy of business processes and business information systems

In the requirements engineering area, it has been recognised that quality issues are essential for the success of any system development and that they should be considered right from the beginning of every project. Even though quality also plays a central role in business process management, systematic consideration of quality requirements is still missing. In this article, we therefore discuss that the continuous traceability of quality might lead to more adequate business processes and supporting information systems. To underpin this position, we develop – based on our many years of experience in the information systems domain – a meta-model, mathematical dependencies and a development method that show how quality goals, business processes and quality requirements for the involved systems are intertwined and how they influence each other.

A Conceptual Foundation of Requirements Engineering for Business Information Systems

Requirements engineering (RE) is a crucial discipline when developing software systems. Applying RE activities successfully in the domain of business information systems (BIS) requires a deep and common understanding on how concepts of RE and business analysis are related. We consider this fact as being a challenge as currently no commonly accepted RE process exits that bridges the gap between these two disciplines. This results in unclear mappings and finally makes it difficult to align methods that exist in both areas. To tackle this challenge, we propose a reference issue model that aims to capture definitions and relations of the issues that are typically relevant in BIS development. In this context, we describe our followed research approach, an underlying meta-model as well as an exemplary instantiation and usage of the reference issue model. This contribution shall serve as a foundation for the integration of RE and business analysis as well as for the development of corresponding analysis approaches.

Addressing requirements engineering challenges in the context of Emergent Systems

Dominant trends in todays IT research such as service orientation and cloud computing will enable novel business information systems, called Emergent Systems. However, the introduction of Emergent Systems will have a significant impact and pose challenges relating to requirements engineering. In this position paper we propose and describe the so-called SoMBRERO framework that aims to address practical problems in the area of requirements engineering that will arise during the development process of future information systems. Furthermore, we provide a research agenda that guides our ongoing work to address research questions in this area.

Model-based prioritization in business-process-driven software development

Requirements engineers in business-process-driven software development are faced with the challenge of letting stakeholders determine which requirements are actually relevant for early business success and should be considered first or even at all during the elicitation and analysis activities. In the area of requirements engineering (RE) and release planning, prioritization is an established strategy for achieving this goal. Available prioritization approaches, however, do not consider all idiosyncrasies of business-process-driven software development. This lack of appropriate prioritization leads to effort often being spent on (RE) activities of minor importance. To support the requirements engineer in overcoming this problem, the idea of applying different models during prioritization is introduced, which shall bring it to a more reliable basis. Through this notion it is expected to reduce unnecessary (RE) activities by focusing on the most important requirements.

A Methodological Framework with Lessons Learned for Introducing Business Process Management

Business process management (BPM) is becoming more and more important for organizations of different sizes. However, the introduction of BPM is a non-trivial task, requiring a lot of experience and helpful guidance in order to be successful. As existing BPM approaches are usually limited to descriptions on a high level of abstraction, they are typically not sufficient to support practitioners in this regard. This paper therefore presents a framework for the introduction of BPM that aims at providing systematic guidance through all the steps of a BPM adoption project. Among other aspects, it especially tackles the areas of a systematic method- and tool selection, which often cause difficulties in practice. In addition, and more importantly, the paper introduces several lessons learned derived from real-world experience made while using this framework. As evidence for the value of these lessons can be presented, they are considered a helpful contribution for industry and academia to make BPM introduction projects more successful.