An information systems design product theory for the class of integrated requirements and release management systems

摘要

High-tech companies conducting product development need to collect and analyze requirements effectively, plan and implement releases, and allocate requirements to appropriate releases. Requirements and release management are complicated because development activities typically are scattered across multiple sites, involve multiple partners in different countries, leverage various development methods and tools, and are realized through various organizational arrangements such as release projects in organizations structured around products and permanent release teams in organizations responsible for the long-term development and maintenance of strategic software and hardware assets. Flexible, scalable, and secure groupware-based support for the activities provides substantial payoffs. Yet, the extant literature provides little theoretical guidance for designing and using requirements and release management systems (RRMS) in multi-site, multi-partner environments. This article develops the meta-requirements and a meta-design of an Information Systems Design Product Theory for the class of RRMS based on a case study in a global company and a literature review. The theory is scalable to meet the needs of global companies but simple enough so that small and medium-sized companies can also leverage it to implement requirements and release management solutions. Copyright ? 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Received 27 November 2008; Revised 30 October 2009; Accepted 6 November 2009