Evaluating and comparing perceptions between undergraduate students and practitioners in controlled experiments for requirements prioritization

Abstract

The Use Case Precedence Diagram (UCPD) is a technique that addresses the problem of determining the construction sequence or prioritization of a software product from the developer’s perspective in software development projects. This paper presents a perceptions evaluation of the UCPD based on the Method Evaluation Model (MEM), where the intention to use a method is determined by the users’ perceptions. Perceptions were collected using a questionnaire which was applied immediately after the controlled experiments were carried out. Those controlled experiments were replicated twice with undergraduate students, and twice with practitioners. The results show that the intentions to use UCPD exist in undergraduate students and practitioners with at least 2 years of experience in the industry, but the relationships defined by the MEM are best confirmed with the results obtained with practitioners.