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Exploring software product management decision problems with constraint solving – opportunities for prioritization and release planning

Regnell, Björn LU orcid and Kuchcinski, Krzysztof LU orcid (2011) 5th International Workshop on Software Product Management p.47-56
Abstract
Decision-making is central to Software Product

Management (SPM) and includes deciding on requirements

priorities and the content of coming releases. Several algorithms

for prioritization and release planning have been

proposed, where humans with or without machine support

enact a series of steps to produce a decision outcome. Instead

of applying some specific algorithm to find an acceptable

solution to a decision problem, we propose to model SPM

decision-making as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP),

where relative and absolute priorities, interdependencies, and

other constraints are expressed as relations among variables

representing... (More)
Decision-making is central to Software Product

Management (SPM) and includes deciding on requirements

priorities and the content of coming releases. Several algorithms

for prioritization and release planning have been

proposed, where humans with or without machine support

enact a series of steps to produce a decision outcome. Instead

of applying some specific algorithm to find an acceptable

solution to a decision problem, we propose to model SPM

decision-making as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP),

where relative and absolute priorities, interdependencies, and

other constraints are expressed as relations among variables

representing entities such as feature priorities, stakeholder

preferences, and resource constraints. The solution space is

then explored with the help of a constraint solver without

humans needing to care about specific algorithms. This paper

discusses advantages and limitations of CSP modeling in

SPM and gives principal examples as a proof-of-concept

of CSP modeling in requirements prioritization and release

planning. A discussion of further research on constraint

solving in SPM is also given. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
release planning, requirementsengineering, software product management, prioritization, constraint programming
host publication
2011 Fifth International Workshop on Software Product Management (IWSPM)
pages
47 - 56
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
conference name
5th International Workshop on Software Product Management
conference location
19th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference 2011, Trento, Italy
conference dates
2011-08-29 - 2011-09-02
external identifiers
  • scopus:80555133310
ISBN
978-1-4577-1146-6
978-1-4577-1147-3
DOI
10.1109/IWSPM.2011.6046203
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2baaaef7-2513-40b4-b5be-eeae5db0c0c9 (old id 2063688)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:06:35
date last changed
2024-04-05 23:45:18
@inproceedings{2baaaef7-2513-40b4-b5be-eeae5db0c0c9,
  abstract     = {{Decision-making is central to Software Product<br/><br>
Management (SPM) and includes deciding on requirements<br/><br>
priorities and the content of coming releases. Several algorithms<br/><br>
for prioritization and release planning have been<br/><br>
proposed, where humans with or without machine support<br/><br>
enact a series of steps to produce a decision outcome. Instead<br/><br>
of applying some specific algorithm to find an acceptable<br/><br>
solution to a decision problem, we propose to model SPM<br/><br>
decision-making as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP),<br/><br>
where relative and absolute priorities, interdependencies, and<br/><br>
other constraints are expressed as relations among variables<br/><br>
representing entities such as feature priorities, stakeholder<br/><br>
preferences, and resource constraints. The solution space is<br/><br>
then explored with the help of a constraint solver without<br/><br>
humans needing to care about specific algorithms. This paper<br/><br>
discusses advantages and limitations of CSP modeling in<br/><br>
SPM and gives principal examples as a proof-of-concept<br/><br>
of CSP modeling in requirements prioritization and release<br/><br>
planning. A discussion of further research on constraint<br/><br>
solving in SPM is also given.}},
  author       = {{Regnell, Björn and Kuchcinski, Krzysztof}},
  booktitle    = {{2011 Fifth International Workshop on Software Product Management (IWSPM)}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-4577-1146-6}},
  keywords     = {{release planning; requirementsengineering; software product management; prioritization; constraint programming}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{47--56}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  title        = {{Exploring software product management decision problems with constraint solving – opportunities for prioritization and release planning}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/94832562/2063693.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1109/IWSPM.2011.6046203}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}