Abstract
[Context & Motivation] Developing new software systems based on a software product line (SPL) is still a time-consuming task and the benefits of using such an approach are often smaller than expected. One important reason for this are difficulties in systematically mapping customer requirements to characteristics of the SPL. [Question/problem] Even though it has been recognized that the success of reuse strongly depends on how requirements are treated, it remains unclear how to perform this in an optimal way. [Principal ideas/results] In this paper, we present a controlled experiment performed with 26 students that compared two requirements elicitation approaches when instantiating a given SPL. [Contribution] Our findings indicate that a novel, problem-oriented requirements approach that explicitly integrates the reuse of SPL requirements into the elicitation of customer-specific requirements is more effective than a traditional SPL requirements approach, which distinguishes requirements reuse and additional elicitation customer-specific requirements.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Clements, P., Northrop, L.: Software Product Lines: Patterns and Practice. Addison Wesley (2001)
Adam, S.: Providing software product line knowledge to requirements engineers – A template for elicitation instructions. In: Regnell, B., Damian, D. (eds.) REFSQ 2011. LNCS, vol. 7195, pp. 147–164. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Deelstra, S., Sinnema, M., Bosch, J.: Product derivation in software product families: a case study. The Journal of Systems and Software 74 (2005)
Rabiser, R., Grünbacher, P., Dhungana, D.: Supporting Product Derivation by Adapting and Augmenting Variability Models. In: SPLC. IEEE (2007)
Adam, S.: Towards Faster Application Engineering through Better Informed Elicitation – A Research Preview. In: REEW@RefSQ 2011, Essen (2011)
O’Leary, P., Rabiser, R., Richardson, I., Thiel, S.: Important Issues and Key Activities in Product Derivation: Experiences from Independent Research Projects. In: SPLC (2009)
Adam, S., Doerr, J., Ehresmann, M., Wenzel, P.: Incorporating SPL Knowledge into a Requirements Process for Information Systems. In: PLREQ @ REfSQ 2010. Essen (2010)
Djebbi, O., Salinesi, C.: RED-PL, a method for deriving product requirements from a product line requirements model. In: Krogstie, J., Opdahl, A.L., Sindre, G. (eds.) CAiSE 2007. LNCS, vol. 4495, pp. 279–293. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Guelfi, N., Perrouin, G.: A Flexible Requirements Analysis Approach for Software Product Lines. In: Sawyer, P., Heymans, P. (eds.) REFSQ 2007. LNCS, vol. 4542, pp. 78–92. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Analytic Quality Glossary: Effectiveness, http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/effectiveness.htm (last visited: February 17, 2012)
Bühne, S., Halmans, G., Lauenroth, K., Pohl, K.: Scenario-Based Application Requirements Engineering. In: Software Product Lines. Springer (2006)
Basili, V.R., Caldiera, G., Rombach, H.D.: Goal Question Metric Paradigm. In: Encyclopedia of Software Engineering, vol. 1, pp. 528–532. John Wiley & Sons (1994)
Adam, S., Doerr, J., Eisenbarth, M., Gross, A.: Using Task-oriented Requirements Engineering in Different Domains – Experiences with Application in Research and Industry. In: Proceedings of RE 2009. IEEE (2009)
Bayer, J., Gacek, C., Muthig, D., Widen, T.: PuLSE-I: Deriving Instances from a Product Line Infrastructure. In: Proceedings of Conference and Workshop on the Engineering of Computer-based Systems. IEEE (2000)
Zimmermann, D.: Comparative Power of Student T Test and Mann-Whitney U Test for Unequal Sample Sizes and Variances. Journal of Experimental Education (1987)
Deelstra, S., Sinnema, M., Bosch, J.: Product derivation in software product families: a case study. The Journal of Systems and Software 74 (2005)
Eriksson, M., Börstler, J., Borg, K.: Managing requirements specifications for product lines – An approach and industry case study. Journal of Systems and Software (2009)
Laguna, M.A., López, O., Crespo, Y.: Reuse, Standardization, and Transformation of Requirements. In: Dannenberg, R.B., Krueger, C. (eds.) ICSR 2004. LNCS, vol. 3107, pp. 329–338. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
The Standish Group International.: CHAOS Manifesto (2011), http://blog.standishgroup.com (last visited: January 18, 2012)
Schmid, K., Kennrich, K., Eisenbarth, M.: Requirements management for product lines: extending professional tools. In: Proceedings of Software Product Line Conference (2006)
Oxford Dictionary, http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/communication
Adam, S.: Incorporating SPL Knowledge into Requirements Processes. PhD Theses in Experimental Software Engineering, vol. 44. Fraunhofer Verlag (to appear, 2013)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Adam, S., Schmid, K. (2013). Effective Requirements Elicitation in Product Line Application Engineering – An Experiment. In: Doerr, J., Opdahl, A.L. (eds) Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. REFSQ 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7830. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37422-7_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37422-7_26
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-37421-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-37422-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)