A Systematic Literature Review on Implementing Non-functional Requirements in Agile Software Development: Issues and Facilitating Practices

Agile Software Development methods have become a widespread approach used by the software industry. Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are often reported to be a problematic issue for such methods. We aimed to identify (within the context of Agile projects): (1) the issues (challenges and problems) reported as affecting the implementation of NFRs; and (2) practices that facilitate the successful implementation of NFRs. We conducted a systematic literature review and processed its results to obtain a comprehensive summary. We were able to present two lists, dedicated to issues and practices, respectively. Most items from both lists, but not all, are related to the requirements engineering area. We found out that the issues reported are mostly related to the common themes of: NFR documentation techniques, NFR traceability, elicitation and communication activities. The facilitating practices mostly cover similar topics and the recommendation is to start focusing on NFRs early in the project.