An empirical study of the software development process, including its requirements engineering, at very large organization: How to use data mining in such a study

Abstract

Very Large Organization (VLO) develops and manufacturers hardware and software products, with each product being developed in its own project. Each project, from its inception, maintains a database that contains a wealth of data pertaining to its software development lifecycle. To empirically study VLO’s software development process, the authors mined the data from seven consecutive VLO projects to determine whether the data exhibit any anomalies and whether these anomalies can help assess a project’s level of success. Some anomalies provide evidence of what VLO does well, while other anomalies highlight possible areas of improvement. Through the anomalies in the mined data, the organization can direct additional focus and research to specific areas of the development process, particularly its requirements engineering, to improve the likelihood of success for future projects. While describing the results of the empirical study, the paper also shows how such a study can be conducted even when the mined data are not very detailed.