Views on Quality Requirements in Academia and Practice: Commonalities, Differences, and Context-Dependent Grey Areas

Abstract

This article originally appeared in Information and Software Technology (IST). Context: Quality requirements (QRs) are a topic of constant discussions both in industry and academia. While many academic endeavors contribute to the body of knowledge about QRs, practitioners may have different views. Objective: We report on a study to better understand the extent to which available research statements on QRs from academic publications, are reflected in the perception of practitioners. Our goal is to analyze differences, commonalities, and context-dependent grey areas in the views of academics and practitioners. Method: We conducted a survey with 109 practitioners to assess their agreement with the selected research statements about QRs. Based on a statistical model, we evaluate the impact of a set of context factors to the perception of research statements. Results: Our results show that a majority of the statements is well respected by practitioners; however, not all of them. When examining the different groups of respondents, we noticed deviations of perceptions that lead to new research questions. Conclusions: Our results help identifying context-dependent differences about how academics and practitioners view QRs and statements where further research is useful.