Comparing Requirements Prioritization Methods in Industry

Abstract

There are numerous methods available dealing with software product requirements prioritization. Also a large amount of scientific knowledge is present comparing some of those methods. However the comparison of the prioritization methods is executed in academic environment or using offline evaluations independent of the live software industry products. This paper compares the ranking prioritization method, the binary search tree method and the Wiegers matrix, as a result of an experiment conducted with a real software product. Thus the priorities set during the experiment actually apply in the product’s release plan and influences the business of the experiment hosting organization. This ensures higher level of involvement of the experiment participants and realistic experiment environment compared to a simulation product prioritization. As a result of the research several findings emerged. There is a difference in the effectiveness of the three methods and each of them might be suitable for a specific situation. The ranking method is the one that requires the least amount of effort to perform followed by the Wiegers matrix and the binary search tree. All of the methods are found to be easy to use if appropriate software instruments are present to facilitate them. Binary search tree presents the highest reliability of the results and fault tolerance followed by the Wiegers matrix and the ranking method.