Integrated Requirement Selection and Scheduling for the Release Planning of a Software Product

This paper investigates two integer linear programming models that integrate requirement scheduling into software release planning. The first model can schedule the development of the requirements for the new release exactly in time so that the project span is minimized and the resource and precedence constraints are satisfied. The second model is for combined requirement selection and scheduling, which can not only maximize revenues but also calculates an on-time-delivery project schedule simultaneously. Two simulations are presented to examine the influence of precedence constraints and compare the differences of the traditional prioritization models and the two new ones. The simulation results suggest that requirement dependency can significantly influence the project plan and the combined model for requirement selection and scheduling is better in the sense of efficiency and on-time delivery