An Empirical Study of a Qualitative Systematic Approach to Requirements Analysis (QSARA)

Stakeholders' understanding of what is expected of a system evolves with the continuous review and revision of the requirements document. Problems arise when stakeholders have little understanding of the domain or the initial document is poorly structured. A Qualitative Systematic Approach to Requirements Analysis (QSARA) was developed to address these problems and others. An empirical study was conducted to determine whether QSARA achieved its objectives. This paper details empirical study design, identifies the resources allocated and presents statistical analysis of data gathered during the study. Evidence collected from seventy participants is also presented. The evidence supports research hypotheses that QSARA assists analysts to construct a more complete description of a system feature and identify interdependencies.