Abstract

Abstract One objective for the agile methods is to lower cost of changing requirements. Currently the most popular agile software development method is Extreme Programming (XP). XP addresses this issue by simplifying management tasks and documentation while the traditional software engineering places more emphasis on strict control and extensive documentation. Requirements management (RM) is the activity that ensures that requirements are traceable and all changes to requirements are properly handled. In a dynamic and fast moving project with an iterative process, RM may tie up too much resources. Requirements management and configuration management (CM) are only implicitly addressed by XP. It may be that the method developers viewed RM and CM too bureaucratic, heavy weight or ceremonial to be included in XP. Currently, in the XP process, user requirements called as "user stories" are written and managed on paper cards. The objective of this paper is to examine the challenges involved in the requirements management in an XP project. The aim is also to study possibilities to integrate the support for user story management into single tool framework. Based on the study, an approach for managing user stories with the respect of XP's basic principles is depicted. Our study is based on an empirical XP case study. According to our study, the following issues were recognized especially important when considering the management of requirements in XP. First, XP provides the basic set of practices that should be shaped into the development situation. This means that practices are tailored for the purposes of a project and the organization, and they can be further changed on-the-fly on periodic process assessments, i.e. if they do not work. Thus, the tool support should not force detailed procedures but provide just enough basic abilities for storing, relating and retrieving user stories and tasks. Second, the tool should allow the XP process to remain agile. This means that the tool should not jeopardize XP's intentions for open communication and lightweight management and documentation. Third, requirements management tool support should be integrated into the project's overall development environment. This allows the project team to operate via one channel from a user story definition, through implementation, up to testing. Our solution for the management of user stories and tasks is called StoryManager. The solution has been integrated as plug-in into Eclipse -tool integration framework to enable integrated environment for an XP project.