Requirements Elicitation Technique Selection: A Five Factors Approach

Abstract

Requirements Engineering phase is well recognized as a root of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) by research community. Requirements are elucidated through requirements elicitation methods conceded by requirement analyst. Requirements elicitation phase is planned and strategized to get complete acquaintance about user’s requirements and expectations. Current software industries having massive necessity to help requirements analyst in requirements elicitation process to carry out precise manner. Correct and refined requirements lead to successful software projects. Vague and incorrect requirements possibly will result in the defective software project. For successful software development, it is vital to recognize precise and accurate requirements for the software project. The progression of information technology has presented various requirements elicitation techniques and therefore analysts are provided with various likely options. Generally, the analyst selects elicitation technique according to company practice or their individual knowledge and skills. It is undefined on the selection of best elicitation techniques for certain situations under particular constraints and circumstances. Several guidelines do exist in literature for technique selection but most technique are theoretical rather than practical. In this research paper, deep knowledge of principal elicitation techniques is explained. After that a five facets model is proposed to select elicitation technique in which major aspects are project characteristics, software development process categories, organizational characteristics, stakeholder characteristics and analyst characteristics. We also demonstrate the suitability of the proposed framework via case studies and verified how the model uses relative knowledge of problem domain to select appropriate requirements elicitation technique for the software under construction.