Examining Requirements Change Rework Effort: A Study

TL;DR

This study investigates the factors affecting software rework effort due to requirements changes, highlighting the importance of communication, documentation, and code characteristics in estimating rework effort accurately.

Contribution

The paper proposes a framework with new criteria for change request forms to better estimate and control rework effort in software maintenance.

Findings

Weak code characteristics increase rework effort.

Poor communication between developers and users impacts rework.

Lack of user documentation correlates with higher rework effort.

Abstract

Although software managers are generally good at new project estimation, their experience of scheduling rework tends to be poor. Inconsistent or incorrect effort estimation can increase the risk that the completion time for a project will be problematic. To continually alter software maintenance schedules during software maintenance is a daunting task. Our proposed framework, validated in a case study confirms that the variables resulting from requirements changes suffer from a number of problems, e.g., the coding used, end user involvement and user documentation. Our results clearly show a significant impact on rework effort as a result of unexpected errors that correlate with 1) weak characteristics and attributes as described in the program's source lines of code, especially in data declarations and data statements, 2) lack of communication between developers and users on a change effects, and 3) unavailability of user documentation. To keep rework effort under control, new criteria in change request forms are proposed. These criteria are shown in a proposed framework; the more case studies that are validated, the more reliable the result will be in determining the outcome of effort rework estimation.