Analysing Requirements Communication Using Use Case Specification and User stories
Ana Carolina Oran, Elizamary Nascimento, Gleison Santos, Tayana Uchôa Conte · 2017
Effective requirements communication is essential in software development projects due to the importance of understanding the requirements throughout the software development cycle. Software requirements can be specified in different formats, for instance using free texts or more structured forms, such as use cases and user stories used in Behavior Driven Development (BDD). We present a comparative analysis on the requirements communication dynamics using use case specification and user stories as the basis for mockups creation. We carried out an exploratory empirical study involving 16 students. The study comprised 3 steps: requirements specification, mockups construction, and inspection to investigate whether the mockups were in accordance with the specifications. Results show that there is no significant difference in using use case specification or user stories to communicate software requirements. Our findings suggest that different specification formats can provide similar results while communicating requirements, nonetheless the human factor should not be neglected.