Dynamic Decision Support for Electronic Requirements Negotiations

Annika Lenz develops an interactive preference measurement method, which provides dynamic preference adjustment, to assess alternatives in terms of utility for an individual decision maker throughout the requirements negotiation process. Consequently, interactive dynamic decision support is designed, which can handle changes related to requirements dynamically. An empirical study shows that the newly developed method is both objectively and subjectively more efficient than a static alternative. Thus, it is argued that efficient preference adjustment enables decision support based on up-to-date preferences. The designed support component is compared to two state-of-the-art approaches for decision support in requirements negotiations. Contents Decision Problems in Requirements Negotiations Assessment of Multi-Criteria Preference Measurement Methods for a Dynamic Environment DynASE - A Method for Dynamic Preference Adjustment in Electronic Negotiations Designing Dynamic Decision Support for Electronic Requirements Negotiations Target Groups Scientists and students in the field of business information systems Practitioners working in the area of requirements engineering About the Author Annika Lenz was a research assistant at the Information Systems Department 1 - Organisational Communication at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, and is currently working in the field of digital transformation Foreword 5 Preface 7 Table of Contents 8 List of Figures 11 List of Tables 12 List of Abbreviations 13 1 Introduction 14 1.1 The Need for Dynamic Decision Support in Electronic Requirements Negotiations 15 1.2 Research Objective and Research Questions 16 1.3 Structure of this Thesis 17 2 Theoretical and Methodological Background 19 2.1 Decision Support in Electronic Requirements Negotiations 19 2.2 Design Science Research Methodology 21 3 Decision Problems in Requirements Negotiations 26 3.1 Introduction 26 3.2 Decision Problem Structure in Negotiations 28 3.3 Requirements Negotiations 29 3.3.1 Decision Problem Structures in Traditional Requirements Negotiations 29 3.3.2 Decision Problem Structures in Agile Requirements Negotiations 32 3.3.3 Matrix of Possible Decision Problem Structures 34 3.4 Discussion and Conclusion 35 3.5 Acknowledgements 36 4 Assessment of Multi-Criteria Preference Measurement Methods for a Dynamic Environment 37 4.1 Introduction 37 4.2 Theoretical Background and Related Work 39 4.2.1 Utility Based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Approaches 39 4.2.2 Dynamic Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Methods 41 4.3 Selection of an Adequate Preference Measurement Method 43 4.3.1 Requirements and Assessment Scale 43 4.3.2 Selection of Methods 44 4.4 Assessment of Selected Methods 45 4.4.1 Qualitative Fulfilment of Requirements 46 4.4.2 Quantitative Performance Assessment 47 4.4.2.1 Validity 48 4.4.2.2 Efficiency 49 4.4.2.3 Survey difficulty 49 4.4.3 Discussion and Evaluation 50 4.5 Conclusion and Outlook 52 4.6 Acknowledgements 53 5 DynASE – A Method for Dynamic Preference Adjustment in Electronic Negotiations 54 5.1 Introduction 54 5.2 Preference Measurement in Electronic Negotiations 56 5.2.1 Multi-Attribute Utility Theory and Assumptions Made 56 5.2.2 Approaches 56 5.2.3 Perception of the Preference Measurement Method and Its Results 59 5.3 Extension of ASE to Fit Dynamic Demands 60 5.4 Implementation of DynASE 66 5.5 Empirical Study 70 5.5.1 Comparable Method 70 5.5.2 Procedure and Participants 72 5.5.3 Measures 73 5.5.4 Descriptive Results 74 5.5.5 Results 75 5.5.6 User Perception 76 5.6 Discussion 79 5.7 Conclusion and Outlook 81 6 Designing Dynamic Decision Support for Electronic Requirements Negotiations 83 6.1 Introduction 83 6.2 State-of-the-Art 84 6.3 Methodology 87 6.4 Design of the Dynamic Decision Support Component 88 6.4.1 A Concept for Dynamic Decision Support 88 6.4.2 Instantiation of Dynamic Decision Support in a Negotiation Support System 91 6.5 Scenario-Based Comparison of Dynamic Decision Support for Requirements Negotiation 93 6.5.1 Characteristics of the Decision Support Components 93 6.5.2 Comparison of the Decision Support Components 94 6.6 Discussion and Conclusions 96 6.7 Acknowledgements 97 7 Discussion and Outlook 98 7.1 Summary 98 7.2 Discussion 103 7.3 Limitations 105 7.4 Contribution 106 7.5 Outlook 109 References 112 Appendix 123 A1 Case Study Information Including Preferences for Initial Preference Elicitation 123 A2 Case Study Information Including Preferences after Agenda Change for Preference Adjustment 127 A3 Factor Loadings after Rotation 128 A4 Reliability Measures 129 Front Matter ....Pages I-XVII Introduction (Annika Lenz)....Pages 1-5 Theoretical and Methodological Background (Annika Lenz)....Pages 7-13 Decision Problems in Requirements Negotiations (Annika Lenz)....Pages 15-25 Assessment of Multi-Criteria Preference Measurement Methods for a Dynamic Environment (Annika Lenz)....Pages 27-43 DynASE – A Method for Dynamic Preference Adjustment in Electronic Negotiations (Annika Lenz)....Pages 45-73 Designing Dynamic Decision Support for Electronic Requirements Negotiations (Annika Lenz)....Pages 75-89 Discussion and Outlook (Annika Lenz)....Pages 91-104 Back Matter ....Pages 105-123