Understanding the most in-demand soft skills in requirements engineering practice: Insights from two focus groups

Maya Daneva; Andrea Herrmann; Nelly Condori-Fernandez; Chong Wang

doi:10.1145/3319008.3319352

Understanding the most in-demand soft skills in requirements engineering practice: Insights from two focus groups

Maya Daneva, Andrea Herrmann, Nelly Condori-Fernandez, Chong Wang

Semantics, Cybersecurity & Services

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

5 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

[Context] Research on the professional occupation of Requirements Engineering (RE) indicated soft skills as very important in employers’ search for RE specialists. A very long list of soft skills came out of prior research, with proficiency in English being ranked as the Number One skill.

[Question/problem] To what extent, however, are these skills deemed critical in RE in practice, and also in making hiring decisions in RE, and why? Which skills are to be ranked higher in regard to hiring decisions, and which lower? In this study, we compare results based on analyses of job ads with practitioners’ perceptions in real-life organizations.

[Methodology] We executed two focus groups (FGs) with RE practitioners from industry, as part of the REFSQ 2018 conference.

[Principal ideas/results] The soft skills from previous studies were discussed in depth with the FGs participants regarding where and why these skills are needed or sometimes are even unnecessary. Here, we report a ranked list of soft skills, among which communication skills were considered as the most important. Next, some of the skills ranked as the most important in job ads, are not needed everywhere.

[Contribution] The results lead to a more differentiated view on those soft skills that requirements engineers need in practice, and the reasons for these skills’ importance.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of EASE 2019 - Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	284-290
Number of pages	7
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-7145-2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3319008.3319352
Publication status	Published - 15 Apr 2019
Event	23rd Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering Conference, EASE 2019 - Copenhagen, Denmark Duration: 14 Apr 2019 → 17 Apr 2019 Conference number: 23

Conference

Conference	23rd Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering Conference, EASE 2019
Abbreviated title	EASE 2019
Country/Territory	Denmark
City	Copenhagen
Period	14/04/19 → 17/04/19

Keywords

Business analyst
Communication
Focus groups
Industry-relevant research
Qualitative study
Requirements engineering
Soft skill

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1145/3319008.3319352

Cite this

@inproceedings{b22f5de4bbc64ec79753c6316be72b84,

title = "Understanding the most in-demand soft skills in requirements engineering practice: Insights from two focus groups",

abstract = "[Context] Research on the professional occupation of Requirements Engineering (RE) indicated soft skills as very important in employers{\textquoteright} search for RE specialists. A very long list of soft skills came out of prior research, with proficiency in English being ranked as the Number One skill.[Question/problem] To what extent, however, are these skills deemed critical in RE in practice, and also in making hiring decisions in RE, and why? Which skills are to be ranked higher in regard to hiring decisions, and which lower? In this study, we compare results based on analyses of job ads with practitioners{\textquoteright} perceptions in real-life organizations.[Methodology] We executed two focus groups (FGs) with RE practitioners from industry, as part of the REFSQ 2018 conference.[Principal ideas/results] The soft skills from previous studies were discussed in depth with the FGs participants regarding where and why these skills are needed or sometimes are even unnecessary. Here, we report a ranked list of soft skills, among which communication skills were considered as the most important. Next, some of the skills ranked as the most important in job ads, are not needed everywhere.[Contribution] The results lead to a more differentiated view on those soft skills that requirements engineers need in practice, and the reasons for these skills{\textquoteright} importance.",

keywords = "Business analyst, Communication, Focus groups, Industry-relevant research, Qualitative study, Requirements engineering, Soft skill",

author = "Maya Daneva and Andrea Herrmann and Nelly Condori-Fernandez and Chong Wang",

year = "2019",

month = apr,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1145/3319008.3319352",

language = "English",

pages = "284--290",

booktitle = "Proceedings of EASE 2019 - Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

note = "23rd Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering Conference, EASE 2019, EASE 2019 ; Conference date: 14-04-2019 Through 17-04-2019",

}

Daneva, M, Herrmann, A, Condori-Fernandez, N & Wang, C 2019, Understanding the most in-demand soft skills in requirements engineering practice: Insights from two focus groups. in Proceedings of EASE 2019 - Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering. Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 284-290, 23rd Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering Conference, EASE 2019, Copenhagen, Denmark, 14/04/19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3319008.3319352

Understanding the most in-demand soft skills in requirements engineering practice: Insights from two focus groups. / Daneva, Maya; Herrmann, Andrea; Condori-Fernandez, Nelly et al.
Proceedings of EASE 2019 - Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering. Association for Computing Machinery, 2019. p. 284-290.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Understanding the most in-demand soft skills in requirements engineering practice

T2 - 23rd Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering Conference, EASE 2019

AU - Daneva, Maya

AU - Herrmann, Andrea

AU - Condori-Fernandez, Nelly

AU - Wang, Chong

N1 - Conference code: 23

PY - 2019/4/15

Y1 - 2019/4/15

N2 - [Context] Research on the professional occupation of Requirements Engineering (RE) indicated soft skills as very important in employers’ search for RE specialists. A very long list of soft skills came out of prior research, with proficiency in English being ranked as the Number One skill.[Question/problem] To what extent, however, are these skills deemed critical in RE in practice, and also in making hiring decisions in RE, and why? Which skills are to be ranked higher in regard to hiring decisions, and which lower? In this study, we compare results based on analyses of job ads with practitioners’ perceptions in real-life organizations.[Methodology] We executed two focus groups (FGs) with RE practitioners from industry, as part of the REFSQ 2018 conference.[Principal ideas/results] The soft skills from previous studies were discussed in depth with the FGs participants regarding where and why these skills are needed or sometimes are even unnecessary. Here, we report a ranked list of soft skills, among which communication skills were considered as the most important. Next, some of the skills ranked as the most important in job ads, are not needed everywhere.[Contribution] The results lead to a more differentiated view on those soft skills that requirements engineers need in practice, and the reasons for these skills’ importance.

AB - [Context] Research on the professional occupation of Requirements Engineering (RE) indicated soft skills as very important in employers’ search for RE specialists. A very long list of soft skills came out of prior research, with proficiency in English being ranked as the Number One skill.[Question/problem] To what extent, however, are these skills deemed critical in RE in practice, and also in making hiring decisions in RE, and why? Which skills are to be ranked higher in regard to hiring decisions, and which lower? In this study, we compare results based on analyses of job ads with practitioners’ perceptions in real-life organizations.[Methodology] We executed two focus groups (FGs) with RE practitioners from industry, as part of the REFSQ 2018 conference.[Principal ideas/results] The soft skills from previous studies were discussed in depth with the FGs participants regarding where and why these skills are needed or sometimes are even unnecessary. Here, we report a ranked list of soft skills, among which communication skills were considered as the most important. Next, some of the skills ranked as the most important in job ads, are not needed everywhere.[Contribution] The results lead to a more differentiated view on those soft skills that requirements engineers need in practice, and the reasons for these skills’ importance.

KW - Business analyst

KW - Communication

KW - Focus groups

KW - Industry-relevant research

KW - Qualitative study

KW - Requirements engineering

KW - Soft skill

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064754594&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3319008.3319352

DO - 10.1145/3319008.3319352

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85064754594

SP - 284

EP - 290

BT - Proceedings of EASE 2019 - Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 14 April 2019 through 17 April 2019

ER -

Understanding the most in-demand soft skills in requirements engineering practice: Insights from two focus groups

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this