Enhancing Requirements Change Request Categorization and Prioritization in Agile Software Development Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Main Article Content

Kashif Asad
Mohd. Muqeem

Abstract

Software development now relies heavily on agile methods, which call for the efficient administration and prioritization of change requests. In order to improve requirement prioritization using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Agile methods, this study article presents a new framework for classifying software requirements into Small Change Requests (SCRs) and Large Change Requests (LCRs). The paper examines the difficulties associated with requirement prioritization and categorization in Agile settings and offers a methodical system for dividing change requests into categories based on complexity, impact, and timeline. In order to provide a thorough grasp of the project scope and objectives, the framework considers both functional and non-functional needs. A case study containing several Agile software development projects is used to evaluate the performance of the suggested categorization and prioritization model. According to the findings, the combination of SCR and LCR categorization with AHP enables more effective teamwork and greater matching of development goals with partner objectives. The research also shows that the suggested framework's integration into the Agile development process results in a more efficient decision-making process, less time wasted on talks, and improved resource distribution. The model aids in risk mitigation by allowing a methodical and quantifiable approach to requirement prioritization. These risks are related to quick changes in project scope and changing client requirements. By presenting a fresh framework for requirement categorization and prioritization, this study adds to the current discussion on successful requirement management in Agile methods. Agile software development projects become more effective and adaptable overall thanks to the incorporation of AHP, which guarantees a more methodical and objective prioritization process. This study has the potential to greatly improve the administration of shifting needs and user expectations in Agile settings by offering a structured method to classify and rank change requests.

Article Details

How to Cite
Asad, K. ., & Muqeem, M. . (2023). Enhancing Requirements Change Request Categorization and Prioritization in Agile Software Development Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) . International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication, 11(5), 148–159. https://doi.org/10.17762/ijritcc.v11i5.6589
Section
Articles

References

T. L. Saaty, ‘‘Analytic hierarchy process,’’ in Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science. New York, NY, USA: Springer, 2013, pp. 52–64

M. A. Akbar, Nasrullah, M. Shafiq, J. Ahmad, M. Mateen, and M. T. Riaz, ‘‘AZ-model of software requirements change management in global software development,’’ in Proc. Int. Conf. Comput., Electron. Electr. Eng. (ICE Cube), Nov. 2018, pp. 1–6.

N. Nurmuliani, D. Zowghi, and S. Powell, ‘‘Analysis of requirements volatility during software development life cycle,’’ in Proc. Austral. Softw. Eng. Conf., 2004, pp. 28–37. 4. F. Sher, D. N. Jawawi, R. Mohamad, and M. I. Babar, “Requirements prioritization techniques and different aspects for prioritization a systematic literature review protocol,” in Proceedings of 8th Malaysian Software Engineering Conference (MySEC). IEEE, 2014, pp. 31–36.

R. Thakurta, “A framework for prioritization of quality requirements for inclusion in a software project,” Software Quality Journal, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 573–597, 2013.

P. Achimugu, A. Selamat, and R. Ibrahim, “A web-based multi-criteria decision-making tool for software requirements prioritization,” in Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Collective Intelligence. Springer, 2014, pp. 444–453.

P. Achimugu, A. Selamat, and R. Ibrahim, “A preference weights model for prioritizing software requirements,” in Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Collective Intelligence. Springer, 2014, pp. 30–39.

J.K. Gershenson, and L.A. Stauffer, A Taxonomy for Design Requirements from Corporate Customers. Research in Engineering Design, 11 (1999),103–115.

Hussain, S., Ehsan, N. and Nauman, S. (2010) A Strategic Framework for Requirements Change in Technical Projects: Case Study of a R & D Project. 2010 3rd IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology (ICCSIT), 5, 354-35.

Coram, M. & S. Bohner. The Impact of Agile Methods on Software Project Management. Engineering of Computer-Based System. ECBS ‘05. 12th IEEE International Conference and Workshops, 4-7 April 2005, p. 363-370 (2005).

D. Baxter, J. Gao, K. Case et al., A framework to integrate design knowledge reuse and requirements management in engineering design. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 24(2008), 585- 593.

Cao, L. and Ramesh, B. (2008). Agile requirements engineering practices: An empirical study. IEEE software, 25(1):60–67.

Albuquerque, D., Guimaraes, E., Perkusich, M., Costa, A., Dantas, E., Ramos, F., & Almeida, H. (2020, March). Defining agile requirements change management: a mapping study. In Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (pp. 1421-1424)

S. Ghosh, S. Ramaswamy, and R. P. Jetley, "Towards Requirements Change Decision Support," 2013 20th Asia-Pacific Softw. Eng. Conf, pp. 148- 155, Dec. 2013.

Jyothi, V.E. & K.N. Rao. Effective Implementation of Agile Practices: Ingenious and Organized Theoretical Framework. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 2 (3): 41-48 (2011).

Minhas, N.M., Qurat-ul-Ain, Zafar-ul-Islam and Zulfiqar, A. (2014) An Improved Framework for Requirement Change Management in Global Software Development. Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 7, 779-790.

Quesf, A., 2010, Requirements Engineering in Agile Software Development, Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, Vol.2, No.3.

P. Berander and A. Andrews, “Requirements prioritization,” Engineering and managing software requirements, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 79–101, 2005.

Anwer, S., Wen, L., & Wang, Z. (2019). A systematic approach for identifying requirement change management challenges: Preliminary results. Proceedings of the Evaluation and Assessment on Software Engineering, 230-235.

Sedano, T., Ralph, P., & Péraire, C. (2019, May). The product backlog. In 2019 IEEE/ACM 41st International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) (pp. 200-211). IEEE.

Alsalemi, A. M., & Yeoh, E. T. (2015, December). A survey on product backlog change management and requirement traceability in agile (Scrum). In 2015 9th Malaysian Software Engineering Conference (MySEC) (pp. 189-194). IEEE.

Asif, S. A., Masud, Z., Easmin, R., & Gias, A. U. (2017). SAFFRON: a semi-automated framework for software requirements prioritization. arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.00354.

Zhang, Z., Li, X., & Liu, Z. L. (2014, September). A Closed-loop Based Framework for Design Requirement Management. In ISPE CE (pp. 444-453).

Saeeda, H., Dong, J., Wang, Y., & Abid, M. A. (2020). A proposed framework for improved software requirements elicitation process in SCRUM: Implementation by a real?life Norway?based IT project. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 32(7), e2247.

AL-Ta’ani, R. H., & Razali, R. (2013). Prioritizing requirements in agile development: A conceptual framework. Procedia Technology, 11, 733-739.

Mueller, C., 2011, Requirements Management in an Agile-Scrum, Department of Computer Science San Marcos, TX.

Shehzadi, Z., Azam, F., Anwar, M. W., & Qasim, I. (2019, August). A novel framework for change requirement management (CRM) in agile software development (ASD). In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on information communication and management (pp. 22-26).

LeClair, A., Bittner, K.: Agile Requirements Management, Forrester Research, 15 July 2016 20. 11th annual state of Agile™ survey, VERSIONONE.COM, VersionOne, Inc. (2016)

I. Inayat, S. S. Salim, S. Marczak, M. Daneva, and S. Shamshirband. A systematic literature review on agile requirements engineering practices and challenges. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, Part B:915 – 929, 2015. Computing for Human Learning, Behaviour and Collaboration in the Social and Mobile Networks Era.

S. McGee and D. Greer, "A software requirements change source taxonomy," in Software Engineering Advances, 2009. ICSEA'09. Fourth International Conference on, 2009, pp. 51-58.

J. Buckley, T. Mens, M. Zenger, A. Rashid, and G. Kniesel, "Towards a taxonomy of software change," Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice, vol. 17, pp. 309-332, 2005.

Glazer, H., Dalton, J., Anderson, D., Konrad, M.D., Shrum, S.: CMMI or agile: why not embrace both! (2008).

Khan, A., Basri, S., Dominic, P., et al.: ‘Communication risks and best practices in global software development during requirements change management: a systematic literature review protocol’, Res. J. Appl. Sci., Eng. Technol., 2013, 6, p. 3514.

B. M. M. Q. R. U. Q. M. A. Fateh ur Rehman, "Scrum Software Maintenance Model: Efficient Software Maintenance in Agile Methodology," in 2018 21st Saudi Computer Society National Computer Conference (NCC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2018.

F. Moisiadis. A Framework for Prioritizing Software Requirements. PhD thesis, Macquarie University, Australia, July 2003.

D. Summers, S. Joshi, and B. Morkos, ‘‘Requirements evolution: Relating functional and non-functional requirement change on student project success,’’ in Proc. 16th Int. Conf. Adv. Vehicle Technol., Aug. 2014, Paper DETC2014-35023, V003T04A002, doi: 10.1115/DETC2014-35023.

S. Kugele, W. Haberl, M. Tautschnig, and M. Wechs, ‘‘Optimizing auto matic deployment using non-functional requirement annotations,’’ in Proc. Int. Symp. Leveraging Appl. Formal Methods, Verification Validation. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2008, pp. 400–414.