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The Impact of a Requirements Specification on Software Defects and Quality Indicators

Authors:
John Terzakis

Keywords: requirements specification; requirements defects; reviews; software defects; software quality

Abstract:
Capturing requirements in a written, centralized specification is a recognized product development best practice. But, how does this document impact software defect rates and quality? Is there any correlation between a well-written, properly reviewed requirements specification and software defect levels and other quality indicators? This paper will present data from an Intel case study illustrating the “before and after” scenario for a requirements specification. In the former, a minimal set of requirements were scattered across various documents for a first generation (older) product. In the latter, requirements were written and reviewed in a single requirements document for a second generation (newer) product. Software defect rates, feature commit vs. delivery, requirements volatility, and defect closure rates all improved dramatically even with the increased complexity of the newer product.

Pages: 140 to 141

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: June 24, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4529

ISBN: 978-1-61208-202-8

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from June 24, 2012 to June 29, 2012