Towards a Framework for Improving Transparency in the Software Engineering Process

Transparency is a relatively new and emerging non-functional quality requirement yet to be fully theoretically and empirically explored in the software engineering process (SEP). This paper presents a framework for formalising and improving the transparency of software products. The study argues that improving the transparency of software products improves their quality and maintainability, achieves effective communication and meets stakeholders’ transparency requirements concerns. Empowered by a standard data collection procedure, it utilises well-known concepts in developing a framework that captures the complex and multifaceted nature of a transparency improvement process. Current assertions by various transparency researchers and empirical evidence, coupled with the lack of measurement of transparency in SEP, gave rise to our proposition that the application of a transparency improvement programme in the early phase of SEP would lead to more transparency in software artefacts and a better quality of the final software system. In developing the framework, the study fills a significant gap in the transparency literature and potentially offers stakeholders, including requirements engineers, developers and organisations, a model-based framework approach to aid transparency evaluation and improvement. The study concluded by suggesting that the framework contributes significantly to providing a formal basis for theory building in transparency implementation and quality improvement by enabling a shared understanding among stakeholders in SEP.