Dependency-Aware Software Release Planning through Mining User Preferences
This work addresses software release planning for developers by incorporating user preference dependencies, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing models by adding dependency considerations.
The paper tackled the problem of optimizing software release value by considering how user preferences for features influence each other, known as value-related feature dependencies, and proposed an approach that mines these preferences to improve release planning, demonstrating its validity and practicality in a real-world software project.
Considering user preferences is a determining factor in optimizing the value of a software release. This is due to the fact that user preferences for software features specify the values of those features and consequently determine the value of the release. Certain features of a software however, may encourage or discourage users to prefer (select or use) other features. As such, value of a software feature could be positively or negatively influenced by other features. Such influences are known as Value-related Feature (Requirement) Dependencies. Value-related dependencies need to be considered in software release planning as they influence the value of the optimal subset of the features selected by the release planning models. Hence, we have proposed considering value-related feature dependencies in software release planning through mining user preferences for software features. We have demonstrated the validity and practicality of the proposed approach by studying a real world software project.