Software Engineering: Requirements quality assurance in the software industry in the Colombian Eje Cafetero

Abstract

Introduction−Software engineering, as a discipline, is rep-resented in a series of subdisciplines and good practices. One of these is software quality assurance, and within it, require-ments quality. This research explores and describes the situ-ation in the Eje Cafetero (Colombia), contrasts it with the in-ternational literature and proposing lines of action to improve the software development process from the point of view of requirements quality assurance.Objective−Characterize the practices of the local software industry and its relationship to quality assurance, particularly in the requirements phase.Methodology− The methodology used in the research was mainly descriptive and exploratory, in which a non-probabi-listic sample was used for convenience in which 23 companies participated and the information was collected through a sur-vey.Results−Input data for the formulation of a model for quality assurance requirements in the local software industry. Conclusions−Most of the projects that are undertaken in the local industry are in the hands of unipersonal organiza-tions or MiPYMES; organizations that mostly avoid following standards or methodologies accepted and recognized world-wide, taking then the definition of requirements, for the case that occupies this article, to a minimum expression and thus increasing the statistics of failed projects

Keywords

• software engineering
• software quality assur ance (sqa)
• requirements quality assurance (rqa)
• msmes
• requirements quality assurance model
• software development