Software Requirements Division - An Interview Study at Saab AB, Electronic Defence Systems

Abstract: Software requirements are a crucial part of software development. They are also part of the main reason why projects fail. The previous research in the area of software requirements has not been focused on the division of software requirements. This paper presents an interview study with such a focus. Five people working at Saab AB, Electronic Defence Systems, Operations G oteborg (Saab EDS) were interviewed about software requirements division and how they conduct such divisions at Saab EDS. The respondents answers were summarized and analysed. The analysis showed that Saab EDS divide software requirements into four levels; customer, system, subsystem and lower level. The software requirements division are conducted through group discussions. The basis of the division of software requirements is indicated to be based upon expert knowledge and that the software requirements division decisions are people dependent. The improvement that Saab EDS can proceed with, suggested by the paper author, is to take "software requirements division decision"-notes to be able to keep track of the reasoning behind the software requirements division decision.