A case study on Optimization of Resource Distribution to cope with Unanticipated Changes in Requirements

It is a known fact that requirements change continuously, and as a consequence, it may be necessary to reschedule development activities so that the new requirements can be addressed in a costeffective manner. Unfortunately, changes in requirements cannot be specified precisely. Moreover, current software development methods do not provide explicit means to adapt development processes with respect to unanticipated changes in requirements. This article first proposes a method based on Markov Decision Theory, which determines the estimated optimal development schedule with respect to probabilistic product demands and resource constraints. Second, a tool is described that is built to support the method. Finally, some experimental results are presented on the applicability of the proposed method