Requirements Practices: A Comparative Industrial Survey

Evidence suggests that some of the most common and serious problems associated with developing software can be traced back to requirements management [12]. Organizations that implement effective requirements engineering (RE) practices reap multiple benefits, with great rewards coming from the reduction of rework during later development stages and throughout maintenance [26]. We believe that it is important to examine what RE practices are actually used and which of these practices lead to good requirements. If we know what is really going on we are able to position our research within an appropriate context [5]. A survey, developed by Verner and Cerpa was used to describe requirements and project management practices in organizations in the United States and Australia [21, 22, 23, 24]. The survey was originally developed as a result of discussions held with U.S. developers and includes factors they considered important for project success. The Verner and Cerpa survey is used here to provide data on Chilean practitioners’ views regarding software project success and failure, and the practices they consider important to software development projects. We compare the Chilean practices with those from the U.S. to help in understanding which practices are universal and which may be culturally dependent.