Product backlog optimization technique in agile software development using clustering algorithm.

Context: The recent research trend has highlighted that multiple stakeholders are involved during requirement gathering in agile software development. Hence, leading to an increased number of duplicate user stories in agile product backlog during requirement gathering. Objective: The objective of this paper is to evaluate the existing techniques employed in identifying and eliminating the duplicate user stories from agile product backlog and to overcome the existing gaps with the help of a newly proposed clustering algorithm. Method: An agile user story is expressed as a function of input and output parameters. That said multiple user stories having similar set of input parameters are most likely to be duplicate causing a redundancy. The newly proposed algorithm is used for clustering user stories having similar set of input parameters through various iterations and then removing the identified duplicate user stories from agile product backlog. This paper also introduces the concept of mass clustering which means clustering a number of user stories in single run. Results: Experimental results prove the proposed model is capable of handling small and large releases ranging between 100 to 1000 user stories with similar efficiency. The proposed clustering algorithm outperformed the clustering algorithms and resulted in 37% decrease in agile product backlog by eliminating duplicate user stories causing redundancy. The experimental results are obtained from the logs of the MATLAB tool. However, the provided algorithm is generic in nature and can be implemented using R, Python or SAS programming tools. The provided algorithms employs proven matrix operations. Conclusion: The proposed clustering algorithm overcomes the limitation of existing user story management methods and clearly out performs when compared with other clustering algorithms. Finally, this paper gives recommendations about the usage of the provided clustering algorithm during agile release planning for eliminating duplicate user stories from agile product backlog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]