A case study on benefits and side-effects of agile practices in large-scale requirements engineering
Elizabeth Bjarnason, Krzysztof Wnuk, Björn Regnell · 2011
In the software industry, there is a strong shift from traditional phase-based development towards agile methods and practices. This paper reports on a case study aimed at investigating if, and how, agile Requirements Engineering (RE) can remedy the challenges of traditional RE, and what new challenges agile RE may pose. The results from an initial case study with 9 practitioners from a large software development company, which is transitioning towards agile-inspired processes, show that agile practices address some RE challenges such as communication gaps and overscoping, but also cause new challenges, such as striking a good balance between agility and stability, and ensuring sufficient competence in cross-functional development teams.