OntoReD: requirements debt ontology

Abstract

Although the practices proposed in agile methods to speed up software development are beneficial to the organization, they can affect how requirements engineering activities are conducted as these practices are not explicit. These activities, when not carried out properly, can result in poorly understood, omitted, and poorly specified requirements, leading to requirements debt and can compromise other stages of software development. However, requirements debts, as well as practices to mitigate them, are little explored and, on many occasions, are unknown, not monitored, or managed efficiently, which causes high maintenance costs over time. The objective of this article is to present an Ontology focused on requirements debt in the agile context, enhancing practices that can mitigate them during agile requirements engineering activities. The research was conducted through an investigation of the state of practice supported by grounded theory, unifying the result with information obtained in two systematic studies of the literature: a systematic mapping of the literature that consists of identifying the causes, consequences, and practices focused on requirements debt and a tertiary study focused on debt management, supporting the knowledge obtained about requirements debt and serving as input for the construction of an ontology, called “OntoReD”. As a result of this study, an ontology named OntoReD was developed, aimed at representing and managing requirements debt in agile contexts. It centralizes knowledge about the causes, consequences, and mitigation practices, in addition to providing guidelines for their application in the software development process. OntoReD also establishes relationships among causes, consequences, and practices, enabling the identification of the origins of the debt and ways to prevent or reduce it. For the scientific community, OntoReD represents a relevant conceptual contribution, serving as a foundation for future studies and allowing adaptations to other types of technical debt. In the organizational context, it can be integrated into the development of a tool to support professionals in agile organizations in understanding the current scenario, offering practice recommendations through an interactive interface. This approach can support more informed and effective decisions in the management, prevention, and reduction of requirements debt.