Requirements Validation in the Information Systems Software Development: An Empirical Evaluation of Its Benefits for a Public Institution in Lima

Abstract

Under Peruvian legislation, all information technology offices belonging to public institutions must meet ISO/IEC 12207 and, in the case of small organizations the international standard series ISO/IEC 29110 could be a good strategy to comply with the legislation. In this context, ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 establishes to apply software validation to requirements as a relevant activity; but it is an unusual practice during the software development of information systems in Peru. In this study, we assess the benefits of software validation in the context of a public institution technical unit. For this purpose, a case study was performed and a quasi-experimental design was applied on a group of projects. The quality indicators defined increased their values as a consequence of process improvement based on software validation. As a conclusion, applying software validation to requirements is beneficial and contributes to increase project quality.