Abstract:
Requirements Volatility is considered to be a major
source of risk to the management of large and complex
software projects. The ability to characterise the
nature and origins of requirements change during
software development is important and can lead
organisations towards more effective management of
changing requirements.
This paper focuses on a study to establish how
practitioners classify requirements change requests.
We used the Card Sorting method to identify categories
of change requests that software developers use in
practice. Card sorting is a knowledge elicitation
method that is commonly used for capturing
information about different ways of representing
domain knowledge. This study has allowed us to get
valuable insights into the way practitioners classify
change requests and to understand their perspectives
on classification. This classification is a valuable
source of information in prioritizing change requests
and assessing their impact. Our findings from the card
sorting exercise further reveal that the criteria used for
categorization are related to the role the practitioner
plays in the software development team and the nature
and extent of their responsibilities.
