Home // International Journal On Advances in Software, volume 6, numbers 1 and 2, 2013 // View article

Towards an Approach for Analysing the Strategic Alignment of Software Requirements using Quantified Goal Graphs

Authors:
Richard Ellis-Braithwaite
Russell Lock
Ray Dawson
Badr Haque

Keywords: Requirements Engineering; Strategic Alignment; Quantified Goal Graphs; Requirements Traceability

Abstract:
Analysing the strategic alignment of software requirements primarily provides assurance to stakeholders that the software-to-be will add value to the organization. Additionally, such analysis can improve a requirement by disambiguating its purpose and value, thereby supporting validation and value-oriented decisions in requirements engineering processes, such as prioritization, release planning, and tradeoff analysis. We review current approaches that could enable such an analysis. We focus on Goal Oriented Requirements Engineering methodologies, since goal graphs are well suited for relating software goals to business goals. However, we argue that unless the extent of goal-goal contribution is quantified with verifiable metrics, goal graphs are not sufficient for demonstrating the strategic alignment of software requirements. Since the concept of goal contribution is predictive, what results is a forecast of the benefits of implementing software requirements. Thus, we explore how the description of the contribution relationship can be enriched with concepts such as uncertainty and confidence, non-linear causation, and utility. We introduce the approach using an example software project from Rolls-Royce.

Pages: 119 to 130

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2013. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2013

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2628