Agile requirements prioritization in large-scale outsourced system projects: an empirical study

Maia Daneva, Egbert van der Veen, Chintan Amrit, Smita Ghaisas, Klaas Sikkel, Ramesh Kumar, Nirav Ajmen, Uday Ramteerthkar, Roel Wieringa

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

135 Citations (Scopus)
442 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The application of agile practices for requirements prioritization in distributed and outsourced projects is a relatively recent trend. Hence, not all of its facets are well-understood. This exploratory study sets out to uncover the concepts that practitioners in a large software organization use in the prioritization process and the practices that they deem good. We seek to provide a rich analysis and a deep understanding of three cases in an exploratory study that was carried out in a large and mature company, widely recognized for its excellence and its engagement in outsourced software development. We used in-depth interviews for data collection and grounded theory techniques for data analysis. Our exploration efforts yielded the following findings: (i) understanding requirements dependencies is of paramount importance for the successful deployment of agile approaches in large outsourced projects. (ii) Next to business value, the most important prioritization criterion in the setting of outsourced large agile projects is risk. (iii) The software organization has developed a new artefact that seems to be a worthwhile contribution to agile software development in the large: ‘delivery stories’, which complement user stories with technical implications, effort estimation and associated risk. The delivery stories play a pivotal role in requirements prioritization. (iv) The vendor's domain knowledge is a key asset for setting up successful client-developer collaboration. (v) The use of agile prioritization practices depends on the type of project outsourcing arrangement. Our findings contribute to the empirical software engineering literature by bringing a rich analysis of cases in agile and distributed contexts, from a vendor's perspective. We also discuss the possible implications of the results for research and in practice.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1333 -1353
Number of pages21
JournalThe Journal of systems and software
Volume86
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2013

Keywords

  • Requirements Prioritization
  • Requirements Dependencies
  • Agile Requirements Engineering
  • Case Study
  • Outsourced software development
  • Large projects
  • Qualitative Research
  • SCS-Services
  • Distributed project management

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