| The primary measure of success of a software system is the degree to which it meets the purpose for which it was intended. Software systems requirements engineering is the process of discovering that purpose, by identifying stakeholders and their needs, and documenting these in a form that is agreeable to analysis, communication, and subsequent implementation. There are a number of inherent difficulties in this process. These difficulties may lead to uncertainty about user requirements and also about the high dynamic complexity and ambiguity of the software development task. Uncertainty in user requirements, however, comes in a variety of forms, such as instability, diversity, and analyzability. These types of requirements often reflect on a poor understanding of the business processes, insufficient details for developers to do their tasks, and insufficient feedback from users over the life cycle of the software project.; My research examined the impact of requirements uncertainty and task uncertainty on software development quality factors: process and product. A cross-sectional survey of one hundred and twenty-three participants (software project managers, requirements engineers, software engineers, and software developers) in thirty four organizations was employed to prove my research model. The findings were drawn from an examination of the research hypotheses. Analyzed data provided evidence of a significant negative association between requirements uncertainty and development quality factors: process and product. Moreover, the data provided evidence of a negative significant association between task uncertainty and process and product quality. However, surprisingly, task ambiguity, an aspect of task uncertainty, appears more important because it has the strongest negative association with development quality in a software project. Based on this, my research suggests that task ambiguity is distinct variable and must be kept separate from task complexity. Furthermore, requirements uncertainty and task uncertainty do not interact with one another to influence the development outcomes. This means that requirements uncertainty and task uncertainty act independently of each other.; This work is probably the first empirical attempt to examine the direct relationships between requirements activity and development quality performance. Findings from this research can provide the basis on which project managers and software practitioners can design concrete strategies that would enhance the performance of software development to high quality ends. The research also concludes with operational and policy recommendations for future research. |
