From Requirements to Continuous Re-prioritization of Hypotheses

Typically, customer feedback collected in the pre-study, and during the early stages of software development, determines what new features to develop. However, once the decision to develop a new feature is taken, companies stop validating if this feature adds value to its intended customers. Instead, focus is shifted towards developing and implementing the feature. As a result, re-prioritization of feature content is rare, and companies find it difficult to continuously assess and validate feature value. In this paper, we explore the data collection practices in five software development companies. We introduce a model that allows continuous re-prioritization of features. Our model advocates a development approach in which requirements are viewed as hypotheses that need to be continuously validated, and where customer feedback is used to continuously re-prioritize feature content. We identify how the model helps companies transition from early specification of requirements towards continuous re-prioritization of hypotheses.