Optimal Timing of Dynamic Requirement Reviews for Software Development Process

6 Pages Posted: 19 May 2008

See all articles by Yonghua Ji

Yonghua Ji

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems

Ming Fan

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business

Yong Tan

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business

Date Written: September 1, 2006

Abstract

Dynamic project review embraces changes and accepts the idea that software requirements will evolve throughout a project. Dynamic requirement reviews can incorporate new market and customer information and fix initial design and development shortcomings. We study the optimal timing of dynamic requirement reviews for software projects. We find that when alignment cost is incremental, the reviews should be conducted with an even time interval. When the alignment cost is cumulative, the reviews should be conducted more frequently at earlier stages of the project. We solve closed-form solutions for the case that the decay function is linear. Our results show that as system decays more rapidly, requirement reviews should be conducted more frequently. As requirement reviews take a longer time, the reviews should occur less frequently.

Keywords: software engineering, process analysis, requirement reviews, optimal policy

Suggested Citation

Ji, Yonghua and Fan, Ming and Tan, Yong, Optimal Timing of Dynamic Requirement Reviews for Software Development Process (September 1, 2006). 16th Annual Workshop on Information Technologies & Systems (WITS) Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1134224 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1134224

Yonghua Ji (Contact Author)

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems ( email )

Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6
Canada

Ming Fan

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business ( email )

Box 353200
Seattle, WA 98195-3200
United States

Yong Tan

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business ( email )

Box 353226
Seattle, WA 98195-3226
United States