Requirements Engineering Process HERMES 5 and SCRUM

Abstract

The goal of this master’s thesis was to develop a requirements engineering process that satisfied the requirements of the project management method HERMES 5 and took advantage of the software development method SCRUM. From the outset the challenge was to combine these two contrary methods.HERMES 5 follows partially a traditional waterfall approach, in which it is possible to execute the phases “implementation” and “deployment” iterative by the use of implementation units and releases. HERMES 5 is an open standard that allows it to adapt the single elements of HERMES 5 according to the needs of the organization. It is allowed to extend or reduce elements and the outcomes can be combined or split if the content doesn’t thereby change. HERMES 5, as an open standard, does not have a lot of mandatory requirements, and these are on a high level and are not threatened by changes on deeper elements. An initial analysis of the whole agile HERMES scenario revealed some points that aren’t conducive to the agile approach or that make its manner of implementation unclear.SCRUM follows the agile approach. The advantages of SCRUM are that the customer sees a result at an early stage of the IT project. Through tight collaboration between the customer (Product Owner) and the developer, it is possible to identify problems and faults early on, which leads to high product quality. Through fast value delivery, the customer satisfaction is more rapidly guaranteed. Along with the many advantages of SCRUM, however, come just as many stumbling blocks, which may impede the achievement of the benefits mentioned. All of these stumbling blocks can be traced back to a false or insufficient understanding of the use of SCRUM....