Maintaining shared understanding of non-functional requirements in small companies using continuous software engineering

Non-functional requirements (NFR) such as performance and maintainability are key to overall software quality. To ensure NFRs can be satisfied, it is important that developers and other stakeholders have a shared understanding of such NFRs to prevent divergence of interpretations and expensive rework as a result. This article is part of a research program to study the management of shared understanding of NFRs. We present a process theory comprising six propositions developed through secondary analysis of extensive field investigations of how small software organizations maintain a shared understanding of NFRs in fast-paced Continuous Software Engineering (CSE) contexts. Small organizations, including software startups, represent an important part of the software industry, but are categorically different from large organizations in that they have fewer financial and staff resources. Further, while literature has suggested general practices for building shared understanding, how this applies to NFRs specifically remains an open question. Based on this inductive theory development, the resultant theory explains how a lack of shared understanding is detected and addressed, and how the CSE context induces challenges in these processes.