Magnitude economic effects of requirements in the development process — A simulation study of workload behaviour

In order to produce software, different standardized development approaches exist which define the process to follow. This paper investigates common development approaches concerning their profitability. It works out an appraisal which development approach should be used. This appraisal considers the economic performance yield by the ability of different development approaches to deal with customer's behaviour. To evaluate the profitability, multiple simulations were performed and their results were presented. In order to contribute to the decision on the right development approach, 600 simulations were executed and analysed. It was possible to identify a development approach which allows maximizing the profits. This paper helps to understand the relation between process performance and customer's behaviour.