Multi-criteria preference analysis for systematic requirements negotiation

Abstract

Many software projects have failed because their requirements were poorly negotiated among stakeholders. The paper proposes a systematic model, called "multi-criteria preference analysis requirements negotiation (MPARN)" to assist stakeholders to evaluate, negotiate, and agree upon alternatives among stakeholders during requirements analysis using multi-criteria preference analysis techniques. The eight-step MPARN model is applied to requirements gathered for an industrial-academic repository system. An initial analysis demonstrates that multi-criteria preference analysis methodology with the WinWin model potentially increases stakeholders' levels of cooperation and trust by providing a systematic approach to the design of a better negotiation process, as well as focusing on unbiased aspects within a requirements negotiation.