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Resumo do trabalho
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Context: Technical debt (TD) contextualizes the problem of pending software devel-
opment tasks as a type of debt that brings a short-term benefit to the project, often interms of increased development speed or shortened time to market. TD items can affect different artifacts and phases of the software development. It is particularly important to discuss the management of TD in the context of requirements engineering (RE) activities because they are inherently complex, reflect a system purpose aligning different viewpoints of the system’s stakeholder, and impact several software development phases.
There are two types of debt directly related to RE: requirements and documentation debt. Although several works have investigated the state-of-the-practice on TD concerning its causes, effects, and management, the current literature has not approached the topic under the perspective of requirements and requirements documentation debt (R2DD).
Aims: This Ph.D dissertation aims to organize the TD management landscape for
requirements debt in the technical and human aspects.
Method: Initially, we conducted a literature review on the current state of research on R2DD and causes, effects, and practices used for its prevention and repayment. Then, we analyzed data collected by replication teams from the InsighTD project, which is a family of globally distributed surveys on the causes, effects and management of TD. From the body of knowledge resulted from the analysis of InsighTD data, we perceived that the human factor is important when dealing with R2DD, consequently, we investigated the great and the less desirable attributes of requirements engineers and the relationship between them. Based on this investigations, we defined four concept maps.
Results: This Ph.D. dissertation presents the state of practice of R2DD, revealing its causes, effects, and practices used for its prevention and repayment. Regarding causes of R2DD, deadline, not effective project management, change of requirements, inappropriate
planning, and high turnover of the team are among the five most cited to incurr R2DD. Considering effects of R2DD, the five most cited are: delivery delay, rework, financial loss, low external quality, and low maintainability. well-defined requirements, following the project planning, following well-defined project process, well-define scope statement, and good allocation of resources in the team are the five commonly cited practices for preventing R2DD item, while lack of qualified professionals, non-update documentation,
and short deadline are the reasons for explaining the non-prevention of R2DD. About practices for repayment R2DD items, code refactoring, monitoring and controlling project
activities, design refactoring, investing effort on TD repayment activities, and changing project scope are among the five most cited, while focusing on short term goals, lack of organizational interest, lack of resources, cost, and team overload are the reasons for explaining the non-repayment of R2DD. Considering the investigation of the great and the less desirable attributes of requirements engineers, the attributes investigative ability
to talk to stakeholders, judicious, understand the business, good ability to identify missing requirements, and good knowledge of requirements engineering practices are the five most cited attributes for great requirements engineers, while difficulty in relationships, lack of communication, lack of business knowledge, make superficial specifications (without details, with inconsistencies, ambiguities - making the team’s work difficult, and lack of organization are the most cited less desirable attributes.
Conclusion: Using the InsighTD data, this Ph.D. dissertation explores the state of
practice of R2DD, on causes, effects, and practices used for its prevention and repayment.After analyzing these data, and given that the human factor is important when dealing with R2DD, it also explores the great and the less desirable attributes of requirements engineers and the relationship between them. All body of knowledge was organized into four artifacts that can drive new investigations on R2DD and support software practitioners in increasing their capabilities.
Keywords: technical debt, requirements debt, documentation debt, requirements documentation debt, causes, effects, practices, prevention, repayment, conceptual map, great and less desirable requirements engineers.
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