Impact Propagation of Human Errors on Software Requirements Volatility

Requirements volatility (RV) is one of the key risk sources in software development and maintenance projects because of the frequent changes made to the software. Human faults and errors are major factors contributing to requirement change in software development projects. As such, predicting requirements volatility is a challenge to risk management in the software area. Previous studies only focused on certain aspects of the human error in this area. This study specifically identifies and analyses the impact of human errors on requirements gathering and requirements volatility. It proposes a model based on responses to a survey questionnaire administered to 215 participants who have experience in software requirement gathering. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to analyse the correlation of human errors and requirement volatility. The results of the analysis confirm the correlation between human errors and RV. The results show that human actions have a higher impact on RV compared to human perception. The study provides insights into software management to understand socio-technical aspects of requirements volatility in order to control risk management. Human actions and perceptions respectively are a root cause contributing to human errors that lead to RV.