Towards dealing with commonly occurring requirements engineering process issues during software development outsourcing

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 7; p. e0269607
• Main Authors: Iqbal, Javed, Ahmad, Rodina B, Amin, Fazal-e, Shoaib, Muhammad, Nasir, Mohd Hairul Nizam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 14.07.2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Communication; Computer and Information Sciences; Data collection; Engineering; Engineering and Technology; Evaluation; Focus groups; Knowledge management; Literature reviews; Medicine and Health Sciences; Outsourcing; Questionnaires; Requirements analysis; Research and Analysis Methods; Sampling methods; Social Sciences; Software; Software development; Software engineering; Surveys; Germany
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269607

Due to specific advantages, the volume of Software Development Outsourcing (SDO) is rapidly increasing. Because of challenges arising from the Requirements Engineering (RE) process, the anticipated benefits of SDO are not achieved in case of several projects. The objective of this research work is to recommend RE practices for addressing the commonly arising RE process issues in the case of SDO. For this reason, a thorough literature review has been undertaken, as well as two questionnaire surveys have been performed with skilled SDO industry practitioners. The surveys have been done by utilizing semi-supervised style and employing Convenience Sampling method. The 50 percent rule and a four-point Likert Scale have also been used to determine the advantages of RE practices for dealing with the issues. A comprehensive list of 147 RE practices has been extracted by conducting a Focus Group session. Furthermore, the 147 RE practices have been ranked by applying Numerical Assignment and Hundred Dollar Techniques during two Focus Group sessions. The detection and adaptation of RE practices aids in enhancing the SDO RE process, evading SDO failures, and achieving the associated SDO advantages.