Scalability and Limitations of Existing Software Requirements Prioritization Techniques: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Requirements prioritization puts more emphasis on the software requirements based on their importance, making it a crucial activity in managing software requirements throughout the software development process. This work explains the concept of prioritization techniques, their relevance, and related issues. Recent literature has described many requirement prioritization techniques, but each comes with its own limitations and challenges, specifically regarding scalability. In this article, we provide a systematic literature review (SLR) of the requirement prioritization techniques over the past decade and identify their limitations and scalability issues. In this context, we develop a planned protocol that includes all the necessary steps required for the SLR process. As a result of conducting the SLR, 53 primary studies were shortlisted for data extraction. The analysis of the results indicates that there is a minimal focus on large-scale functional requirements, with only 9% of the work addressing this area. To the best of our knowledge, no work has been done on prioritizing requirements between ERP systems and mobile-specific applications. Most existing studies focus on imaginary or simulated projects, and very limited actual work has been carried out during the execution of the industrial projects. When requirements are prioritized correctly, the likelihood of successful implementation will be high, and it will lead to a higher quality product.