Documentation of requirements and sharing of knowledge: A proposal from an ethnographic study
Documentation of requirements, Ethnography, Integrated Systems, Systematic Review, agile software development
This paper presents an ethnographic study on the routine of two teams of requirements analysts in a software factory. The objective is to identify the challenges in producing and maintaining documentation for its various target audiences and to propose practices that improve the effectiveness of the sharing and use of the information collected and documented. It was developed an adaptation of an ethnographic process composed of the phases of: observation of the teams, interviews (with requirements analysts, team leaders and systems management) and material analysis. At the end of this process, the results collected are interpreted in a stage called triangulation - which structures and combines the observed events. The challenges identified were grouped into three broad categories: knowledge sharing, documentation and agile methodologies. After surveying these challenges, two surveys were applied to documentation audiences to understand their informational needs. Knowledge of the challenges and practices indicated will allow for: productivity gains, reduced communication costs among team members, reduced cost of sprint planning, reduction of in-person dependency of requirements analyst, and effective documentation. As contribution of this work are the own ethnographic process - constituted specifically for this research - and the benefits in the use of the suggested practices.