How formal requirements specifications inhibit creativity in software engineering? Replication package

This study aims to explore the cognitive mechanisms by which presenting desiderata as requirements reduces creativity during software design. Forty-two software designers, organized into 21 pairs, participated in a dialog-based protocol study. Their interactions were transcribed and the transcripts were analyzed in two ways:(1) using inductive process coding and (2) using an a-priori coding scheme focusing on fixation and critical thinking. Overall, the results suggest that more formal presentations of desiderata reduce creativity due to requirements fixation, a cognitive bias in which designers anchor on explicit requirements, hindering critical thinking. More formally, requirements fixation mediates the negative relationship between the formality of desiderata presentation and design creativity. This data set represents a comprehensive replication package containing all the documents required to conduct the protocol study and the results of the process coding analysis.