2 / 2018-10-31 08:40:13

A Prediction and Prevention Model of Requirements Change driven by the Improvement of Project Teams with Case Studies

Change cause; Emotional Factor; Prediction; Prevention; Strategy; Questionnaire; Interview

Considered to be a crucial factor that affected the success rate of software, requirements change(RC) could not be avoided in software development. In spite of the importance of RC management, voluminous and multi-faceted literature contained very few studies about the prediction and prevention of requirements volatility. This study aimed to explore a new method that implemented both defensive and reactive strategies as well as emphasized the key role of human factor to predict requirements variability so as to be able to prevent it. In this study, previous related research was discussed, the result of a recent questionnaire about the criticality of human factor that caused changes in requirements was statistically analyzed, a prediction and prevention model of RC driven by the improvement of project teams, PPMRC, was qualitatively established with the view of sociotechnical system by integrating the previous relevant results and experiences. For validating PPMRC, a project organizational management model 3P+2C was exposed by an interview with a 17-year software development company of Guangzhou, China. The analysis of 3P+2C could reveal that PPMRC was effective, and 3P+2C could be thought of a prototype of PPMRC. Finally, the research work in this paper was summarized, and the further research was pointed out: more case studies still needed to fully show the strengths and weaknesses of PPMRC, as well as its extension and tailor.