Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Table 2.10: RE topics learnt in formal educationRank RE Topic Mean % respondents ratingmore than 01 Software Requirements Specification 2.31 802 Group Dynamics 2.13 403 RE Process 2.08 604 Knowledge of Software Packages 2.08 605 Systems Theory and Practice 2.00 506 Formal Methods and Specification techniques2.00 607 Requirements Analysis 1.92 708 Requirements Elicitation 1.70 509 Requirements Validation 1.67 6010 Requirements Management 1.56 50Minor’s work was undertaken as a mechanism to validate the results of studies done elsewhere.After the completion of his study, the participants were asked (by this researcher)to undertake a Lethbridge-style survey, both for triangulation purposes, and to facilitatefurther investigation of practitioner views of RE. The survey instrument and the data acqusition/analysisare described in Appendix B.Applying Lethbridge’s rankings to survey responses it can be seen from Table 2.10 that noRE topic rated highly (the highest individual responses being ‘3’). In line with Lethbridge’sresults, the least learnt formally by the most respondents was Requirements Analysis. Bycomparison, the top ten Other Software Topics rated as indicated in Table 2.11.Table 2.11: Other software topics learnt in formal educationRank Software Topic Mean % respondentsratingmore than01 Simulation 3.50 302 Security and Cryptography 3.16 303 Computational Complexity and Algorithm Analysis 3.00 704 Programming Language Theory 2.90 805 Data Structures and Algorithms 2.88 906 Operating Systems 2.87 807 Object Oriented Concepts & Technology 2.86 708 Specific Programming Languages 2.84 909 Data Transmission and Network 2.71 7010 Systems Programming 2.66 6011 Computer Graphics 2.64 7012 Databases 2.62 8035