Use of Similarity Measure to Suggest the Existence of Duplicate User Stories in the Srum Process

In the Scrum process, Product Backlog consists of a prioritized list of desired software functionalities recorded in the form of user stories. As the software product is developed, new functionalities are discovered and included in the Product Backlog. However, in large-scale projects, duplicate stories may arise because of the large number of generated stories, the lack of communication among team members, and due to the speed of development imposed by the Scrum process. In this case, it is important to detect such story as being duplicate, in order to avoid the rework of the software feature. This paper presents an approach that uses semantic similarity measures to suggest possible cases of duplication between user stories. This alert can help Product Owners and Scrum Masters in the decision about excluding duplicate user stories from the Product Backlog.