On the Sizes of Groups Using the Full and Optimized EPMcreate Creativity Enhancement Technique for Web Site Requirements Elicitation

[Context] Creativity is often needed in requirements elicitation, i.e., generating ideas for requirements, and techniques to enhance creativity are believed to be useful. [Objective] How does the size of a group using POEPMcreate, an optimization of EPMcreate, affect the group’s and each member of the group’s effectiveness in generating requirement ideas? [Method] This paper describes an experiment in which groups of sizes one and two used POEPMcreate to generate ideas for requirements for enhancing a high school’s public Web site. [Results] The data of this experiment combined with the data of two previous experiments involving groups of sizes two and four indicate that the size of a group using POEPMcreate does affect the number of raw and new requirement ideas generated by the group and by each member of the group. [Conclusion] The conclusion from the data is that the larger a group is the more raw and new requirement ideas it generates. However, there is some support for the conclusion that a group member generates more raw and new requirement ideas in a smaller group than in a larger group. This conclusion is supported by qualitative data gathered from a survey of professional business or requirements analysts.