Combining STPA and BDD for safety analysis and verification in agile development: A controlled experiment

Yang Wang, Stefan Wagner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Context: Agile development is in widespread use, even in safety-critical domains. Motivation: However, there is a lack of an appropriate safety analysis and verification method in agile development. Objective: In this paper, we investigate the use of Behavior Driven Development (BDD) instead of standard User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for safety verification with System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) for safety analysis in agile development. Method: We evaluate the effect of this combination in a controlled experiment with 44 students in terms of productivity, test thoroughness, fault detection effectiveness and communication effectiveness. Results: The results show that BDD is more effective for safety verification regarding the impact on communication effectiveness than standard UAT, whereas productivity, test thoroughness and fault detection effectiveness show no statistically significant difference in our controlled experiment. Conclusion: The combination of BDD and STPA seems promising with an enhancement on communication, but its impact needs more research.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAgile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming - 19th International Conference, XP 2018, Proceedings
EditorsAdemar Aguiar, Xiaofeng Wang, Juan Garbajosa
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages37-53
Number of pages17
ISBN (Print)9783319916019
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event19th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2018 - Porto, Portugal
Duration: 21 May 201825 May 2018

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Business Information Processing
Volume314
ISSN (Print)1865-1348

Conference

Conference19th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2018
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityPorto
Period21/05/1825/05/18

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