Decision-making criteria for software requirementsselection: an empirical study in China

This study aims to explore the decision-making criteria for requirements selection inmarket-driven software development projects in China. Requirements selectiondecisions are made by reconciling the conflicting stakeholders? value propositions intoa mutually-agreed set through the negotiation and communication process betweenstakeholders. Firstly, this study identified decision-making criteria according todifferent stakeholders? value propositions, and then evaluated the importance of thecriteria when making the decisions of requirements selection. Moreover, the studydetermined the degree to which the stakeholders from business, product, and projectperspectives influence the decision-making process. Furthermore, the study exploredthe communication between major stakeholders in requirements selection process, asa foundation to support and guide the process.A Delphi survey was applied in this study. Opinions from experienced industrialexperts were obtained to achieve reliable consensus among them on the criteria andrelative importance of the criteria in requirements selection process. The Delphisurvey in this study included four phases of data collection by a series of intensivequestionnaires interspersed with controlled opinion feedback and follow-upinterviews. 132 Experts from 11 companies were recruited by following the rigidprocedure to ensure the validity and reliability of the research.The study indicated that criteria from the business perspective had a major influenceon decision-making of requirements selection, while project- and product-perspectivecriteria were relatively lower in priority. However, there were some inconsistenciesamong the opinions of the recruited experts regarding the importance of the criteria.The inconsistencies may result from a number of different factors, for example;different software development projects; different size, culture, organizationalstructure or maturity level of the companies; or different working positions of the experts surveyed.In addition, the study found three different types of communication in requirementsselection in the companies surveyed. Further, Chinese culture was believed to haveeffects on the communication process between stakeholders. While informalcommunication was highlighted in Chinese context, the Chinese culture of strictlyhierarchical communication could lead to problems in the communication process.Further research is recommended to gain deeper insight into these issues.