Requirement prioritization in Software Engineering : A Systematic Literature Review on Techniques and Methods

Abstract: The present study provides a systematic overview of the most important software requirement prioritization techniques. Software requirement prioritization is a process in software engineering that precludes the actual development of software application programs and deals with assigning priorities to single requirements to define the order of their implementation. The study aims to help researchers and practitioners in deciding about the right technique since each has its advantages and limitations. Compared to the existing reviews, the current one not only captures the most promising techniques but the more general trends behind them. The study utilizes the review protocol method that aims to answer four research questions about the most popular techniques, their taxonomy, their limitations, and involved processes. The empirical data was collected from six databases for scientific manuscripts and put under scrutiny to identify the most relevant and elaborated papers. The results from 53 selected manuscripts and 106 discovered techniques demonstrate that there is evidence of a gradual shift from purely manual elicitation methods to computed-assisted and/or algorithmic ones.