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What Is Troubling IT Analysts? A Survey Report from Poland on Requirements-Related Problems

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Engineering Software Systems: Research and Praxis (KKIO 2018)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 830))

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Abstract

Requirements engineering and business analysis are activities considered to be important to software project success but also difficult and challenging. This paper reports on a survey conducted in Polish IT industry, aimed at identifying most widespread problems/challenges related to requirements. The survey was targeted at people performing role of analyst in commercial IT projects. The questionnaire included 64 pre-defined problems gathered from a literature review and a workshop involving a small group of analysts. It was completed by 55 respondents, each of whom assessed the frequency of occurrence for pre-defined problems and optionally could report additional problems based on their work experience. A ranking of most frequent problems is presented in this paper. Additional analyses for more specific contexts: agile projects and smaller/larger development teams are also provided. Final sections of the paper include comparison of our results and results of reported surveys conducted in other countries, followed by a discussion.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all workshop participants and survey respondents who shared with us with their knowledge and experience. Particular thanks are due to Hanna Tomaszewska from Analizait.pl for disseminating invitations to participate in the survey and to Agnieszka Landowska from Gdańsk University of Technology for advice on data analysis. We are also grateful to anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland

    Aleksander Jarzębowicz & Wojciech Ślesiński

Authors
  1. Aleksander Jarzębowicz
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  2. Wojciech Ślesiński
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aleksander Jarzębowicz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Information Systems, Military University of Technology in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Piotr Kosiuczenko

  2. Institute of Teleinformatics and Automation, Military University of Technology in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Zbigniew Zieliński

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Jarzębowicz, A., Ślesiński, W. (2019). What Is Troubling IT Analysts? A Survey Report from Poland on Requirements-Related Problems. In: Kosiuczenko, P., Zieliński, Z. (eds) Engineering Software Systems: Research and Praxis. KKIO 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 830. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99617-2_1

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