14.2 CASE STUDY DESIGN

REVV study is part of a larger, action research context, depicted in Figure 14.1. The study was intentionally designed with this larger context in mind. The results of the study, anticipated to be descriptive in nature, are intended to support further studies, with subsequent results that are intended to be prescriptive in nature. Thus, a detailed description and understanding of the problem of requirements and test alignment is intended to act as an empirical foundation on which to develop prescriptive solutions. This foundation will give the researchers and practitioners greater confidence in the relevance of the solutions to practice.

14.2.1 Rationale

REVV study was conceived at the start of a 10 year research program together with industrial partners in a research program that commenced in 2008. Several industrial partners pointed out the important challenge of managing the increasing amount of information in a large-scale software engineering, and in particular stressed the need for improving the current state-of-practice regarding the alignment and coordination between requirements and testing.