Incomplete software requirements and assumptions made by software engineers

Date
2009
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
Co-Supervisor
Instructor
Source Title
2009 16th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference
Print ISSN
1530-1362
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
IEEE
Volume
Issue
Pages
333 - 339
Language
English
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Series
Abstract

Many software engineers make implicit assumptions when working with incomplete software requirements. To study assumptions made by software engineers while converting incomplete requirements to software design or to implementation phase deliverables, we conducted an experiment with 251 software engineers from eight companies. The results of this empirical study showed that how software engineers responded (using source code, pseudo code, or prototype) to an incomplete requirement significantly impacted the number of explicit assumptions they made. We studied relationships between the number of explicit assumptions and the engineers' experience and educational backgrounds. On average, non-computer-background engineers made more explicit assumptions than computerbackground graduates. We found a significant relationship between the engineers' experience and the number of explicit assumptions made. We discuss the results and their implications. © 2009 IEEE.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)