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Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
Understanding software requirements and customer needs is vital for all SW companies around the world. Lately clearly more attention has been focused also on the costs, cost-effectiveness, productivity and value of software development and products. This study outlines concepts, principles and process of implementing a value assessment for SW requirements. The main purpose of this study is to collect experiences whether the value assessment for product requirements is useful for companies, works in practice, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of using it. This is done by implementing value assessment in a case company step by step to see which phases possibly work and which phases possibly do not work. The practical industrial case shows that proposed value assessment for product requirements is useful and supports companies trying to find value in their products.
Understanding software requirements and customer needs is vital for all SW companies around the world. Lately clearly more attention has been focused also on the costs, cost-effectiveness, productivity and value of software development and products. This study outlines concepts, principles and process of implementing a value assessment for SW requirements. The main purpose of this study is to collect experiences whether the value assessment for product requirements is useful for companies, works in practice, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of using it. This is done by implementing value assessment in a case company step by step to see which phases possibly work and which phases possibly do not work. The practical industrial case shows that proposed value assessment for product requirements is useful and supports companies trying to find value in their products.
Value-Based Software Engineering, 2006
Product value is based on which requirements are included in a specific release of a software product. This chapter provides an overview of the value concept and presents an empirical study conducted as an industrial survey. The objective of the survey was to quantify the importance of different decision-making criteria when deciding whether to include a requirement in a project or release. The results reported from the survey are based on responses from two companies. It was discovered that there were similarities in responses at a company level, although major differences existed between individual respondents to the survey. The most important criteria were found to be those related to specific customers or markets and criteria, such as development cost-benefit, delivery date and resources. The least important criteria were those related to development and maintenance. The results also indicate that a better balance between the most important and least important criteria ought to be achieved in the future.
Proceedings - 32nd Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, SEAA, 2006
This paper provides results of an empirical study on how software product value is both understood and created through release planning for software products in Australia. We examine how IT professionals perceive value creation through requirements engineering and how the release planning process is conducted to create software product value. We then look at the degree to which the major stakeholders' perspectives are represented in the decision making process. Our findings show that the client and market base of the software product represents the most influential group in the decision to implement specific requirements. This is reflected both in terms of deciding the processes followed and the decisionmaking criteria applied when selecting requirements for the product. It is concluded that the creation of software product value is dependant on the context in which the software product exists, including issues such as the market or the age of the product.
Icsoft, 2007
This study tries to advance and define the concepts, principles and practical methods of a valuebased approach, involving definition of the essential concepts of value, cost and worth in software development. These definitions originate from the Value Engineering (VE) method, originally applied and developed for the needs of the production industry. Therefore, for the purposes of this study these concepts are firstly justified and secondly defined. In order to study and evaluate the value-based approach, a method called value assessment is developed and used when assessing processes and products. The results of industrial case show that even though there is still much to do in making the economic-driven view complete in software engineering, the value-based approach outlines a way towards a more comprehensive understanding of it. For industrial users value assessment seems to give a practical help for handling cost and profitability related challenges.
During the last decades, software process and product improvement (SPI) has been recognized as a usable possibility to increase the quality of software development. Recently, more attention has been focused on the costs of SPI as well as on the cost-effectiveness and productivity of software development. This study defines the concepts and principles of a value-based approach, which is an outcome of the economic-driven discussion related to software engineering. Defined concepts, principles, and processes are based mostly on value engineering (VE) and are justified in earlier discussions. Therefore, this study assumes that this discussion has given a theoretically justified evolutionary plateau for using value assessment in practice. The main purpose of this study is to collect details of experiences on whether the value assessment for products support value-based approach and whether the value assessment works and is useful in industrial context. This is done by implementing value assessment in a case company step by step to see which phases possibly work and which phases possibly do not work. The practical industrial case and research results show that proposed value assessment for products is useful and supports the meaningfulness of a value-based approach. It also demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of using it and what all should be taken into consideration when implementing it.
2011
Value is important for customer decisions and software design decisions. Understanding customer needs using value-focused thinking contributing to connecting customer needs and customer values and finally developing an approach of value-based Requirements Engineering. The main question of such approach is: how customer value can be reasonably quantified or measured? The ideas underlying our research are to qualify and quantify customer values on basis of the input of initial customer statements by introducing a set of techniques, e.g. multiple attributes preference theory and means-ends objectives network. In this paper, we give a preview on our proposed approach of qualitative and quantitative thinking that will enable value measurable and help make rational decision-makings. Keywords-customer values, requirements engineering, multiple attributes preference theory, weights
2010
ABSTRACT With increasing dependence on IS/IT, organizational IT investments have inflated in the last couple of decades. There is an increasing expectation that investments in the IT systems will result in greater value for the business organizations. All these justify the needs for methods to assess the business value of IT-investments. The investment decision is primarily about selecting the right combination of IT-systems that is able to provide the maximum business value in dimensions that are important business-wise.
Journal of Software Engineering & Intelligent Systems, 2016
Value Based Software Engineering (VBSE) deals with the development of economic driven software systems. In such systems, a business idea is implemented in order to gain the market leverage. For the realization of an idea, the requirements must be highly valuable. The valuable requirements can only be obtained from a key set of valuable stakeholders. Researchers presented different stakeholder identification and quantification (SIQ) approaches. The current approaches do not provide low level details in order to carry out the SIQ process, and most of these approaches deal at a very high level of abstraction. This paper focuses on the problems of existing SIQ process and identifies the key stakeholder attributes in order to streamline the SIQ process. In this research, a survey is conducted in the software industry of Pakistan and Malaysia. The survey reports the problems faced by the software industry in the SIQ process. Moreover, the key stakeholder attributes are also reported which may be used to solve the key problems of the SIQ process.
Due to the limitation of resources and the need to manage scare resources, requirements engineers, project and product managers etc are interested in clues that will enable them efficiently manage the production of software products. An understanding of the worth of software product requirements and features will help in the prioritization of requirements. It will also assist in the preparation and planning for proposed products including their future marketability and receptivity in the market. Customer satisfaction is a driver that propels customer loyalty and increases the odds of an improved customer perception of the quality of a software product. This lifeline is important as it drives the sustainability of the software product market. It promotes a good return on investment and the profitability of a software product. Furthermore, customers appreciate products whose features delight and satisfy them and they place value on such features. This ultimately enhances the perceived worth of the entire product. Capturing the perceived worth of requirements or features for a proposed product from would-be customers who feels satisfied when such requirements are met or such features are included in the design of the product, is helpful in ascertaining how important and of value the intended requirements or features are. In this study, a model is proposed that predicts the perceived requirements worth using the customer satisfaction index of the Kano model. The customer satisfaction is based on how satisfied customers are if the requirements or features of the would-be product are met or fulfilled and how important these satisfying requirements or features are to them. A simple regression analysis was computed and the result reveals that customer satisfaction significantly and positively impacts on the perceived requirement worth, if all things remain equal. Customer satisfaction (based on fulfilled software product requirements) significantly predicts the perceived worth of software product requirements. This model can be useful in prioritizing requirements, planning for future products, and in the marketability of such products etc.
2012
Software product value has become a major concern in development companies; there is a fierce competition to deliver better products and offer higher value to the customer. There is a need for knowledge and better understanding on how to manage the value concept; this is especially important for the product offering companies. There is a lot of research in the product value area from the business side, but the specific area of software product value is barely addressed nowadays. The most related approach is Value-Based Software Engineering, but this approach addresses the added value to the Software Engineering tasks. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the related literature on software product value following the guidelines of Systematic Mapping Study methodology. The current state of the art will be presented as well as interesting findings which serve as a basis for next research in this topic.
In the near history, software process and product improvement has been recognized as a usable possibility to increase the quality of software development. Recently the costs and value of software process improvement (SPI) as well as the cost-effectiveness and productivity of software development have become vitally important to many companies as competition has become tougher. The main purpose of this study is to collect experiences whether the value assessment for products support earlier-defined value-based approach and whether the value assessment works in practise, what are the strengths and weaknesses of using it and is it useful to companies. This is done by implementing value assessment in a case company step by step to study which phases possibly work and which phases possibly do not work. The industrial case shows that proposed value assessment for products is useful and supports value-based approach. As well it demonstrates in practice, the strengths and weaknesses of using it and what should be taken into consideration when implementing it.
Journal of Systems Architecture, 2008
It is important for a software company to maximize value creation for a given investment. The purpose of requirements engineering activities is to add business value that is accounted for in terms of return-oninvestment of a software product. This paper provides insight into the release planning processes used in the software industry to create software product value, by presenting three case studies. It examines how IT professionals perceive value creation through requirements engineering and how the release planning process is conducted to create software product value. It also presents to what degree the major stakeholders' perspectives are represented in the decision making process. Our findings show that the client and market base of the software product represents the most influential group in the decision to implement specific requirements. This is reflected both in terms of deciding the processes followed and the decision-making criteria applied when selecting requirements for the product. Furthermore, the management of software product value is dependant on the context in which the product exists. Factors, such as the maturity of the product, the marketplace in which it exists, and the development tools and methods available, influence the criteria that decide whether a requirement is included in a specific project or release.
Software Process: Improvement and Practice, 2008
During the last decades, software process and product improvement (SPI) has been recognized as a usable possibility to increase the quality of software development. Recently, more attention has been focused on the costs of SPI as well as on the cost-effectiveness and productivity of software development. This study defines the concepts and principles of a value-based approach, which is an outcome of the economic-driven discussion related to software engineering. Defined concepts, principles, and processes are based mostly on value engineering (VE) and are justified in earlier discussions. Therefore, this study assumes that this discussion has given a theoretically justified evolutionary plateau for using value assessment in practice. The main purpose of this study is to collect details of experiences on whether the value assessment for products support value-based approach and whether the value assessment works and is useful in industrial context. This is done by implementing value assessment in a case company step by step to see which phases possibly work and which phases possibly do not work. The practical industrial case and research results show that proposed value assessment for products is useful and supports the meaningfulness of a value-based approach. It also demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of using it and what all should be taken into consideration when implementing it.
Software Process: Improvement and Practice - SOPR, 2009
In the near history, software process and product improvement has been recognized as a usable possibility to increase the quality of software development. Recently the costs and value of software process improvement (SPI) as well as the cost-effectiveness and productivity of software development have become vitally important to many companies as competition has become tougher. The main purpose of this study is to collect experiences whether the value assessment for products support earlier-defined value-based approach and whether the value assessment works in practise, what are the strengths and weaknesses of using it and is it useful to companies. This is done by implementing value assessment in a case company step by step to study which phases possibly work and which phases possibly do not work. The industrial case shows that proposed value assessment for products is useful and supports value-based approach. As well it demonstrates in practice, the strengths and weaknesses of using it and what should be taken into consideration when implementing it.
Software companies are forced to become increasingly competitive and responsive to consumers as well as market development due to rapid changes in the current world and global competition. It is important for software companies to maximize product value through proper requirement engineering. The purpose of requirement engineering activities is to add business value that is accounted for in terms of return-on-investment of a software product. This paper introduces some of the fundamental aspects of value from the perspectives of economic theory, discusses a number of the challenges faced by a requirement engineer and finally describes a model to define value from business, product and project perspectives.
Requirements Engineering, 2017
Socio-political' issues, such as emotions, values and people's feelings, are often cited as problems in the RE process. A method is described for analysing such issues. The method consists of a taxonomy of stakeholders' values, motivations and emotions (VME), with process guidance for eliciting and analysing these issues for the RE process and design implications. Values are personal attitudes or long-term beliefs which may influence stakeholder functional and non-functional requirements. Motivations are psychological constructs related to personality traits which may be viewed as stakeholders' long-term goals in RE. Emotions are cues to stakeholders' reactions arising from value/motivation conflicts. The method is supported by a website which illustrates the taxonomy with explanations and scenarios describing problems arising from value conflicts, and from poor understanding of stakeholder values. Two method validation studies were undertaken: first, an evaluation of the website and method by novices and RE experts; and second, case study applications of RE value analysis in real-world industrial practice. The method was used by all practitioners, although in different ways, some used it to create an agenda of issues for analysis while others employed the VMEs to interpret stakeholders' views and manage stakeholder negotiations. The validation studies provide evidence for the acceptability of the method for industrial practitioners, illustrating how valuerelated problems are identified and analysed effectively by the method. The utility of analysing VMEs is compared to other 'socio-political issues'-oriented methods in RE and methods which focus on monetized values in product requirements.
In this study, we investigate the state of the literature and practice about Value-Based Requirements Engineering. We focus on identifying what models for VBRE were presented and what challenges were discussed. We triangulate our results with industrial practitioners by conducting an industrial survey with 59 respondents. We identified 26 primary and 3 secondary studies and synthesized the findings using content analysis. VBRE was identified to be having a positive impact among survey practitioners. However, challenges like aligning product, project and organization opinions, selecting a most valuable requirement for a particular release, and including time-dependent requirements were identified to be impacting the organizations. The results from the study also suggest that, value dimensions like stakeholder value and customer value were not so frequently discussed in RE processes in both literature and among our industry respondents.
2000
The rapid growth of the Chinese software industry has attracted attention from all over the world. Meanwhile, software requirements selection has a crucial impact on the final value of a software product and the satisfaction of stakeholders. This paper presents an empirical study, which focuses on the decision-making criteria for requirements selection in market-driven software development projects in international companies
International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2012
Recently, customer-based product development is becoming a popular paradigm. Customer expectations and needs can be identified and transformed into requirements for product design with the help of various methods and tools. However, in many cases, these models fail to focus on the perceived value that is crucial when customers make the decision of purchasing a product. In this paper, a
2009
In this era of progress and innovation, every product and service has certain value attached to it. Similar is the case with software products and services. These also assign some value to the stakeholders for whom this product or service has some meaning. Software Engineering (SE) deals with the development of quality software product that fulfills stakeholder's requirements. There are many valuation techniques which are being used to establish value of software products and services. However, irony of the situation is that current practices in software engineering are value neutral in essence. Value Based Software Engineering (VBSE) takes into consideration the value assigned to the software product and to the stakeholders who have interest in that software. However, VBSE as a theory has not redefined the term "Value" for the discipline of software engineering. In this paper, we present an analysis of current definitions of value as well as valuation techniques and subsequently, we have presented a case for the need to redefine the term value and modification of current valuation techniques for software engineering.
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