Process model for systematic requirements prioritisation process in an agile software development environment based on 5S approach: Empirical study

In an unstable software development characterized by the turbulence of markets and the competitive pressures, the organization is forced to adopt new software development methodology to be survival. The agile methods have been introduced to maintain the organization endurance. New challenges await agile methods, when requirement prioritisation and re-prioritisation happened frequently, this leads to unstable and disorganize requirement prioritisation process in agile development environment. To improve its effectiveness and make the environment more systematic and organized, this study proposes an adoption of the lean manufacturing tool, which is 5S approach. The 5S approach improve the work environment as it’s designed to check the process and guaranty that issues are identified and get rid of issues. Consequently, this study aims to identify the issues that affect the requirement prioritisation process. Therefore, in-depth interviews have been carried by involving 18 agile practitioners from different agile software development companies. The data collected for this study were analyzed by using grounded theory techniques (Open, Axial and Selective coding). The results are proposed a process model that will allow an improvement of the process by applying a suitable “S” to overcome the issues that might lead to unsystematic and disorganize environment.