Abstract Context: Agile methods have become mainstream even in large-scale systems engineering companies that need to accommodate different development cycles of hardware and software. For such companies, requirements engineering is an essential activity that involves upfront and detailed analysis which can be at odds with agile development methods. Objective: This paper presents a multiple case study with seven large-scale systems companies, reporting their challenges, together with best practices from industry. We also analyze literature about two popular large-scale agile frameworks, SAFe® and LeSS, to derive potential solutions for the challenges. Methods: Our results are based on 20 qualitative interviews, five focus groups, and eight cross-company workshops which we used to both collect and validate our results. Results: We found 24 challenges which we grouped in six themes, then mapped to solutions from SAFe®, LeSS, and our companies, when available. Conclusion: In this way, we contribute a comprehensive overview of RE challenges in relation to large-scale agile system development, evaluate the degree to which they have been addressed, and outline research gaps. We expect these results to be useful for practitioners who are responsible for designing processes, methods, or tools for large scale agile development as well as guidance for researchers.

中文翻译：

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大规模敏捷系统开发中的需求工程挑战与实践

摘要背景：即使在需要适应不同硬件和软件开发周期的大型系统工程公司中，敏捷方法也已成为主流。对于此类公司，需求工程是一项必不可少的活动，它涉及可能与敏捷开发方法不一致的前期和详细分析。目标：本文介绍了七家大型系统公司的多案例研究，报告了他们面临的挑战，以及来自行业的最佳实践。我们还分析了关于两个流行的大规模敏捷框架 SAFe® 和 LeSS 的文献，以推导出应对挑战的潜在解决方案。方法：我们的结果基于 20 个定性访谈、五个焦点小组和八个跨公司研讨会，我们用来收集和验证我们的结果。结果：我们发现了 24 个挑战，我们将这些挑战分为六个主题，然后映射到 SAFe®、LeSS 和我们公司的解决方案（如果有）。结论：通过这种方式，我们全面概述了与大规模敏捷系统开发相关的可再生能源挑战，评估了这些挑战的解决程度，并概述了研究差距。我们希望这些结果对负责为大规模敏捷开发设计流程、方法或工具的从业者有用，并为研究人员提供指导。并概述研究差距。我们希望这些结果对负责为大规模敏捷开发设计流程、方法或工具的从业者有用，并为研究人员提供指导。并概述研究差距。我们希望这些结果对负责为大规模敏捷开发设计流程、方法或工具的从业者有用，并为研究人员提供指导。