Understanding Challenging Situations in Agile Quality Requirements Engineering and Their Solution strategies: Insights from a Case Study

Abstract

In the last few years, agile development methods are getting increasingly popular in large-scale distributed contexts. Despite this popularity, empirical studies have reported several challenges that large-scale distributed agile projects face regarding the implementation of quality requirements. However, there is little known about the mechanisms behind those challenges and the practices currently used by agile practitioners to adequately assure the implementation of quality requirements in distributed context. To look deeper into this, we performed a qualitative multi-case study in six different organizations in the Netherlands. Our multi-case study included seventeen semi-structured open-ended in-depth interviews with agile practitioners of different background and expertise. The analysis of the collected data re-sulted in identifying eleven mechanisms that could be associated with the previously published list of challenges. Moreover, the analysis uncovered nine practices used by agile practitioners as solutions to the challenges, in order to ensure the implementation of quality requirements. Last, we have mapped the identified mechanisms and practices to the previously identified challenges to get insight into the possible cause and mitigation of those challenges.