Supporting the selection of software requirements

The choice of candidate requirements for implementation is a primary determinant of customer satisfaction. It is argued that a set of requirements should be chosen which reflects both the importance and the estimated cost of each candidate requirement. A contribution-based method is proposed which determines importance and estimates cost and industrial experience in applying this method is reported. The results indicate that the contribution of candidate requirements can vary by orders of magnitude. By applying the method, software managers are in a position to select requirements for implementation based on each candidate requirement's contribution.