Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An elicitation instrument for operationalising GQM+Strategies (GQM+S-EI)

  • Published:
Empirical Software Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A recent approach for measurement program planning, GQM+Strategies, provides an important extension to existing approaches linking measurements and improvement activities to strategic goals and ways to achieve these goals. There is a need for instruments aiding in eliciting information from stakeholders to use GQM+Strategies. The success of GQM+Strategies highly depends on accurately identifying goals, strategies and information needs from stakeholders. The research aims at providing an instrument (called GQM+S-EI), aiding practitioners to accurately elicit information needed by GQM+Strategies (capturing goals, strategies and information needs). The research included two phases. In the first phase, using action research method, the GQM+S-EI was designed in three iterations in Ericsson AB. Thereafter, a case study was conducted to evaluate whether the information elicited with the designed instrument following the defined process was accurate and complete. We identified that the industry requires elicitation instruments that are capable to elicit information from stakeholders, not having to know about the concepts (e.g. goals and strategies). The case study results showed that our proposed instrument is capable of accurately and completely capturing the needed information from the stakeholders. We conclude that GQM+S-EI can be used for accurately and completely eliciting the information needed by goal driven measurement frameworks. The instrument has been successfully transferred to Ericsson AB for measurement program planning.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. http://www.kks.se/

References

  • Ali NB, Petersen K, Mäntylä M (2012) Testing highly complex system of systems: an industrial case study. In: Proceedings of the ACM-IEEE international symposium on empirical software engineering and measurement (ESEM 2012), pp 211–220

  • Ardimento P, Baldassare MT, Cimitile M, Visaggio G (2006) Assessing multiview framework (MF) comprehensibility and efficiency: a replicated experiment. Inf Softw Technol 48(5):313–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baca D, Petersen K (2013) Countermeasure graphs for software security risk assessment: an action research. J Syst Softw 86(9):2411–2428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basili VR, Heidrich J, Lindvall M, Münch J, Regardie M, Rombach HD, Seaman CB, Trendowicz A (2007) Bridging the gap between business strategy and software development. In: Proceedings of the international conference on information systems (ICIS 2007), pp 25

  • Basili VR, Lindvall M, Regardie M, Seaman CB, Heidrich J, Münch J, Rombach HD, Trendowicz A (2010) Linking software development and business strategy through measurement. IEEE Comput 43(4):57–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basili VR, Weiss DM (1984) A methodology for collecting valid software engineering data. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 10(6):728–738

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd A (2002) The goals, questions, indicators, measures (gqim) approach to the measurement of customer satisfaction with e-commerce web sites. In: Aslib proceedings, vol 54. MCB UP Ltd, pp 177–187

  • Boyd AJ (2005) The evolution of goal-based information modelling: literature review. In: Aslib proceedings, vol 57. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp 523–538

  • Briand LC, Differding CM, Rombach HD (1996) Practical guidelines for measurement-based process improvement. Softw Process Improv Prac 2(4):253–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brydon-Miller M, Greenwood D, Maguire P (2003) Why action research? Action Res 1(1):9–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bühne S, Lauenroth K, Pohl K (2005) Modelling requirements variability across product lines. In: Proceedings of the 13th IEEE international conference on requirements engineering (RE 2005), pp 41–52

  • Caldiera VRBG, Rombach HD (1994) The goal question metric approach. Encycl Softw Eng 2(1994):528–532

    Google Scholar 

  • Colombo M (2003) Reflexivity and narratives in action research: a discursive approach. In: Forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, vol 4

  • Damm L-O, Lundberg L, Wohlin C (2006) Faults-slip-through - a concept for measuring the efficiency of the test process. Softw Process Improv Pract 11(1):47–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis AM, Tubío ÓD, Hickey AM, Juzgado NJ, Moreno AM (2006) Effectiveness of requirements elicitation techniques: empirical results derived from a systematic review. In: Proceedings of the 14th IEEE international conference on requirements engineering (RE 2006), pp : 176–185

  • Dieste O, Juzgado NJ (2011) Systematic review and aggregation of empirical studies on elicitation techniques. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 37(2):283–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finke JS, Hartmann D (2011) Implementing cisco unified communications manager, part 1 (CIPT1) foundation learning guide:(CCNP Voice CIPT1 642-447). Cisco Press

  • Gencel C, Petersen K, Mughal AA, Iqbal MI (2013) A decision support framework for metrics selection in goal-based measurement programs: GQM-DSFMS. J Syst Softw. In print

  • Graham D (2009) Foundations of software testing : ISTQB certification. Course Technology Cengage Learning, Hampshire, rev. ed. edition

  • Guest G, Bunce A, Johnson L (2006) How many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods 18(1):59–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ISO/IEC15939 (2002) Iso/iec 15939 international standard 1st edition 2002: software engineering - software measurement process, reference number iso/iec 15939:2002(e)(2002)

  • Ivarsson M, Gorschek T (2011) A method for evaluating rigor and industrial relevance of technology evaluations. Empir Softw Eng 16(3):365–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iversen JH, Mathiassen L, Nielsen PA (2004) Managing risk in software process improvement: an action research approach. Mis Q 28(3):395–433

    Google Scholar 

  • Münch J, Fagerholm F, Kettunen P, Pagels M, Partanen J (2013a) The effects of gqm+strategies on organizational alignment. In: Proceedings of the DASMA software metric congress (MetriKon 2013). Santander

  • Münch J, Fagerholm F, Kettunen P, Pagels M, Partanen J (2013b) Experiences and insights from applying gqm+strategies in a systems product development organisation. In: Proceedings of the 39th EUROMICRO conference on software engineering and advanced applications (SEAA 2013). Kaiserslautern

  • Kaneko T, Katahira M, Miyamoto Y, Kowalczyk M (2011) Application of gqm+strategies®; in the japanese space industry. In: IJoint conference of 21st international workshop on software measurement and the 6th international conference on software process and product measurement (IWSM/Mensura 2011), pp 221–226

  • Kaplan R, Kaplan RS, Norton DP (1996) The balanced scorecard: translating strategy into action. Harvard Business Press

  • Keele S (2007) Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering. Technical report, EBSE Technical Report EBSE-2007-01

  • Kilpi T (2001) Implementing a software metrics program at nokia. IEEE Softw 18(6):72–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mandic V, Basili V (2010) An approach for evaluating business goals. Technical Report TR TR-TOL-2010-2802, University of Oulu, Department of Information Processing Science

  • Mandic V, Basili VR, Harjumaa L, Oivo M, Markkula J (2010a) Utilizing gqm+strategies for business value analysis: an approach for evaluating business goals. In: Proceedings of the international symposium on empirical software engineering and measurement (ESEM), pp 2010

  • Mandic V, Harjumaa L, Markkula J, Oivo M (2010b) Early empirical assessment of the practical value of gqm +strategies. In: Proceedings of the international conference on software process (ICSP 2010), pp 14–25

  • Mandic V, Oivo M (2010) Sas: a tool for the gqm +strategies grid derivation process. In: 11th international conference on product-focused software process improvement (PROFES 2010), pp 291–305

  • McGarry J, Card D, Jones C, Layman B, Clark E, Dean J, Hall F (2002) Practical software measurement: objective information for decision makers. Addison-Wesley Boston

  • Mendonça MG, Basili VR (2000) Validation on an approach for improving existing measurement frameworks. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 26(6):484–499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morse JM (1994) Designing funded qualitative research.

  • Mujtaba S, Feldt R, Petersen K (2011) Analyzing strategy and processes for product customization in large-scale industrial settings. In: Proceedings of the 37th EUROMICRO conference on software engineering and advanced applications (SEAA 2011), pp 369–373

  • Münch J, Heidrich J (2008) Aligning business strategies with software measurement - exercise handouts.

  • Offen RJ, Jeffery DR (1997) Establishing software measurement programs. IEEE Softw 14(2):45–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park RE, Goethert WB, Florac WA (1996) Goal-driven software measurement?a guidebook (cmu/sei-96-hb-002, ada313946). Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh

  • Petersen K, Gencel C (2013) Worldviews, research methods, and their relationship to validity in empirical software engineering research. In: Proceedings of the joint conference of the 23rd international workshop on software measurement and the 8th international conference on software process and product measurement (IWSM-Mensura 2013)

  • Petersen K, Wohlin C (2009a) A comparison of issues and advantages in agile and incremental development between state of the art and an industrial case. J Syst Softw 82(9):1479–1490

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petersen K, Wohlin C (2009b) Context in industrial software engineering research. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international symposium on empirical software engineering and measurement (ESEM 2009), pp 401–404

  • Petersen K, Wohlin C (2010a) The effect of moving from a plan-driven to an incremental software development approach with agile practices - an industrial case study. Empir Softw Eng 15(6):654–693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petersen K, Wohlin C (2010b) Software process improvement through the lean measurement (spi-leam) method. J Syst Softw 83(7):1275–1287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petersen K, Wohlin C (2011) Measuring the flow in lean software development. Softw Pract Exper 41(9):975–996

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poppendieck M (2003) Lean software development: an agile toolkit. Addison-Wesley Professional

  • Runeson P, Höst M (2009) Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering. Empir Softw Eng 14(2):131–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runeson P, Host M, Rainer A, Regnell B (2012) Case study research in software engineering. Guidelines and examples. Wiley

  • Sarcià SA (2010) Is gqm+strategies really applicable as is to non-software development domains?. In: Proceedings of the international symposium on empirical software engineering and measurement (ESEM 2010)

  • Scholtes PR, Joiner BL, Streibel BJ (2003) The team handbook. Oriel incorporated

  • Tahir T, Jafar A (2011) A systematic review on software measurement programs. In: Proceedings of frontiers of information technology (FIT 2011). IEEE, pp 39–44

  • Trendowicz A, Heidrich J, Shintani K (2011) Aligning software projects with business objectives. In: Joint conference of 21st international workshop on software measurement and the 6th international conference on software process and product measurement (IWSM/Mensura 2011), pp 142–150

  • van der Linden FJ, Schmid K, Rommes E (2007) Software product lines in action. Springer

  • Van Latum F, Van Solingen R, Oivo M, Hoisl B, Rombach D, Ruhe G (1998) Adopting gqm based measurement in an industrial environment. Softw IEEE 15(1):78–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson H, Daniel E, McDonald M (2002) Factors for success in customer relationship management (crm) systems. J Mark Manag 18(1-2):193–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yin RK (2011) Applications of case study research. Sage

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work has been conducted as part of an Ericsson Software Research (ESR) funded project; GQM-Lean- Establishing a Lean and Sustainable Software Measurement Program. The work also funded partially by ELLIIT, the Strategic Area for ICT research, funded by the Swedish Government. We also would like to thank the measurement analysts who have worked with us in close collaboration, and all the interviewees that participated in this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Kai Petersen

  2. Free University of Bolzano-Bozen, 39100, Bolzano-Bozen, Italy

    Cigdem Gencel

  3. Ericsson AB, Kista, Sweden

    Negin Asghari

  4. Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Stefanie Betz

Authors
  1. Kai Petersen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cigdem Gencel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Negin Asghari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Stefanie Betz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kai Petersen.

Additional information

Communicated by: Natalia Juristo

Appendix: Data

Appendix: Data

Fig. 7
figure 7

Mind-map example

Full size image

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Petersen, K., Gencel, C., Asghari, N. et al. An elicitation instrument for operationalising GQM+Strategies (GQM+S-EI). Empir Software Eng 20, 968–1005 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-014-9306-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-014-9306-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation