Requirements Elicitation Process Research Articles

Advancements and innovations in requirements elicitation: Developing a comprehensive conceptual model

Requirements elicitation is a crucial phase in the software development lifecycle, ensuring that stakeholders' needs are understood and translated into system specifications. Traditional methods often face challenges such as ambiguity, inconsistency, and evolving requirements, leading to project delays and cost overruns. This review proposes a conceptual model that integrates advancements and innovations in requirements elicitation to address these challenges comprehensively. The proposed model leverages various techniques, including but not limited to, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and human-computer interaction (HCI), to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of requirements elicitation. NLP techniques enable automated analysis of textual requirements documents, extracting key information and identifying implicit requirements. ML algorithms facilitate the prediction of potential changes in requirements based on historical data and project context, enabling proactive management of evolving requirements. Moreover, the integration of HCI principles in the requirements elicitation process enhances stakeholder engagement and collaboration. Interactive interfaces and visualization tools enable stakeholders to provide feedback in real-time, fostering a more iterative and participatory approach to requirement gathering. Additionally, techniques such as prototyping and simulation facilitate early validation of requirements, reducing the risk of misinterpretation and ensuring alignment with stakeholders' expectations. Furthermore, the proposed model emphasizes the importance of context-awareness in requirements elicitation. By considering the organizational, cultural, and environmental context of a project, the model adapts its elicitation strategies and techniques to suit specific needs and constraints. Context-awareness also enables the identification of implicit requirements that may not be explicitly stated but are crucial for the success of the system. The model also addresses the challenge of managing conflicting requirements by introducing a systematic approach to requirements prioritization and negotiation. By employing multi-criteria decision-making techniques, stakeholders can collaboratively prioritize requirements based on their importance, feasibility, and impact on project objectives. Conflict resolution mechanisms facilitate consensus-building and trade-off analysis, ensuring that the final set of requirements reflects the collective interests of all stakeholders. Additionally, the proposed model emphasizes the iterative nature of requirements elicitation, advocating for continuous refinement and validation of requirements throughout the development lifecycle. Feedback loops enable stakeholders to review and revise requirements based on evolving needs and changing circumstances, thereby enhancing the adaptability and resilience of the system. The conceptual model presented in this review represents a holistic approach to requirements elicitation, leveraging advancements and innovations in technology, human interaction, and context-awareness. By integrating these elements, the model aims to enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and stakeholder satisfaction in the requirements elicitation process, ultimately contributing to the successful delivery of high-quality software systems.

Approaches in Determining User Story Quality through Requirement Elicitation : A Systematic Literature Review

A survey of 108 agile practitioners revealed that user stories are the most widely used method for capturing requirements. However, user stories can be interpreted differently by different stakeholders, leading to potential misunderstandings within the development team. Additionally, the interconnectedness of user stories poses challenges during the requirement elicitation process. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 27 articles about user story elicitation process were selected and these are examined to determine user story quality. This research will provide a comprehensive summary of user story elicitation approaches and their application in addressing user story quality issues. The study will also offer insights into selecting appropriate approaches for resolving challenges in user story requirement elicitation. Finally, most user story elicitation approach primarily focus on addressing the issue of ambiguity.

USER INVOLVEMENT APPROACH IN AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

This systematic literature review paper aims to identify and analyze the issues of managing users during requirement elicitation within agile software development (ASD) in the existing studies. The study employs a comprehensive search strategy to identify relevant articles published in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. The findings reveal that the current literature focuses on various issues related to user involvement, communication, and collaboration during requirement elicitation. The paper identified 8 different issues related to managing users during requirement elicitation within ASD: user availability, lack of user involvement, long users’ feedback loops, lack of user expertise, ineffective product owner, lack of user communication skills, lack of process regarding user involvement, and lack of motivation. By identifying these issues, practitioners can overcome the issues of user involvement during requirement elicitation within ASD, and resolve conflicts to ensure a successful requirement elicitation process. The paper concludes by identifying the gaps in the existing literature and suggesting future research directions to address these gaps. The research provides valuable insights into the issues of managing users during requirement elicitation within ASD.

QUARE: towards a question-answering model for requirements elicitation

Requirements elicitation is a stakeholder-centered approach; therefore, natural language remains an effective way of documenting and validating requirements. As the scope of the software domain grows, software analysts process a higher number of requirements documents, generating delays and errors while characterizing the software domain. Natural language processing is key in such a process, allowing software analysts for speeding up the requirements elicitation process and mitigating the impact of the ambiguity and misinterpretations coming from natural-language-based requirements documents. However, natural-language-processing-based proposals for requirements elicitation are mainly focused on specific domains and still fail for understanding several requirements writing styles. In this paper, we present QUARE, a question-answering model for requirements elicitation. The QUARE model comprises a meta-ontology for requirements elicitation, easing the generation of requirements-elicitation-related questions and the initial structuration of any software domain. In addition, the QUARE model includes a named entity recognition and relation extraction system focused on requirements elicitation, allowing software analysts for processing several requirements writing styles. Although software analysts address a software domain at a time, they use the same kind of questions for identifying and characterizing requirements abstractions such as actors, concepts, and actions from a software domain. Such a process may be framed into the QUARE model workflow. We validate our proposal by using an experimental process including real-world requirements documents coming from several software domains and requirements writing styles. The QUARE model is a novel proposal aimed at supporting software analysts in the requirements elicitation process.

ASPICE compliance development of Cyber‐Physical Systems by using Model‐Based Systems Engineering

AbstractCurrent automotive Industry is facing numerous challenges. Business model is transitioning from ownership to shared mobility. Mobility of the future is becoming smarter, safer, more secured and connected. Distributed interconnected automotive systems will deliver added‐value mobility services. In the meantime, industrial standards require description of systems engineering practices as well as the practices justification. Automotive SPICE (ASPICE), a standard of software development best practices for automotive industry, for example, was one of the first to support the development of system and software now include hardware and cybersecurity. Traditional systems engineering development approaches are not any more appropriate. The current automotive system complexity requires new approaches like Model‐Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), using modeling and simulation. To address compliance to industry standards, traditional quality approaches consisting of or defining a quality system with a set of processes (e.g. Requirement elicitation process, documentation process…) are no more sufficient. Addressing these challenges require a digital transformation with two pillars. The first pillar is an MBSE methodology such as Cyber MagicGrid (Dassault Systèmes MBSE method) to define a set of best practices to develop a system. The second pillar is a quality management system that relies on the MBSE methodology rather than on a set of enterprise processes to address compliance with standards. Benefits of this approach is in acceleration of the digital enterprise transformation which is achieved by capitalizing the know‐how and considering the industry standards constraints.

Business Process Modeling Supporting the Requirements Elicitation of an Audit System

Requirements elicitation is a highly relevant part of the software development process. Due to the several techniques that exist to perform it, it is necessary to understand the complexity of this activity for it to be well performed, thus ensuring the quality of the final product. In addition, it is also worth emphasizing that the existence of well-defined processes is essential for the stakeholders' needs to be correctly identified in the initial stages of the software development process. This paper presents an experience report of the requirements elicitation and business process modeling teams. The teams used the best practices and reference frameworks to understand, model, and perform business process enhancements to the Brazilian Unified Health System General Audit Office (AUDSUS) audit system by using the business process model and notation (BPMN). Thus, all software requirements were specified based on the modeled business processes, providing a faster software development process and a more efficient information flow between stakeholders and the teams involved.

Classification of Stakeholders of an Information System using Fuzzy based Adjusted Cosine Similarity Measure during Requirements Elicitation Process

Requirements elicitation process is employed for the identification of stakeholders of an information system. A large number of stakeholders from different domains across the globe participate during the requirements elicitation process. Based on our review, we found that existing methods for the analysis of stakeholders do not support how to classify the stakeholders based on the similarity measures. These measures play an important role for the recommendation of an item/user in a recommendation system. Thus, the objective of this paper is to classify the stakeholders of an information system using fuzzy-based adjusted cosine similarity measure. We have identified the stakeholders of library information system and their opinions for different requirements are recorded. The identified stakeholders have been classified and analysed based on the following similarity measures under fuzzy environment, i.e., Cosine similarity measure, Euclidean distance, Pearson coefficient correlation etc., so that stakeholders having similar requirements can be recommended to strengthen the requirements elicitation process.

Selection of goals with incomplete linguistic preference relations

In goal oriented requirements elicitation process (GOREP), the requirements of the stakeholders are refined and decomposed using AND/OR graph. Goal is a high level objective of a company which is refined and decomposed into sub-goals. After refinement and decomposition, a system may have several goals and it is not possible to implement all goals because of the time, budget, and other constraints of an organisation. It is a primarily research issue that how to select those goals that would be designed, implemented and tested during different phases of the software development process. On the basis of our review, we found that there is no support for the selection of goals in GOREP when preference relations are incomplete and the preferences of the decision-makers are represented by linguistic variables. Therefore, to address this research issue, we present a method for goal selection when linguistic preference relations are incomplete. Proposed method was applied to select the goals of the institute examination system.

Generating large dataset for software requirements prioritization and selection under fuzzy environment

Requirements elicitation is a key sub-process of requirements engineering in which various types of software requirements such as functional and non-functional requirements, testing requirements etc., are identified according to the needs of the stakeholders. After the completion of the requirements elicitation process, there may be a large set of requirements and practically it is not possible to implement all requirements due to budget, time and other constraints of an organization. Under this situation, software developers select the highest ranked software requirements from the list of the elicited software requirements for different releases of software so that a successful software product can be developed. The selection of software requirements for different releases is a difficult task because it requires the participation of various stakeholders. In the field of science and engineering, datasets play an important role during experimental work. Based on our review, we found that in the literature of software engineering less attention is given on the generation of the datasets particularly in the domain of software requirements prioritization and selection (SRPS). Therefore, to address this issue, in this paper we present a four-step method for generating the dataset for SRPS research, i.e. (a) identification of stakeholders, (b) elicitation of software requirements using the goal-oriented concept, (c) formation of decision maker committee and (d) evaluation of the functional requirements and non-functional requirements by decision makers under fuzzy environment. The proposed method has been applied to generate the dataset for the requirements of an institute examination system.

GoEliTool for Software Requirements Elicitation using Goal-Oriented Approach

Requirements engineering (RE) is an essential initial stage in software engineering. The RE process begins with the elicitation stage. This stage collects all user requirements that must be fulfilled by the system which will be developed. A goal-oriented approach is an effective approach used to automate the RE process. The development of goal-oriented input document standards is one of the important issues that has not been widely studied. Therefore, this study developed a goal-oriented input document standard for the requirements elicitation process. A tool is developed based on the form of the input document that has been generated. The development of standard forms of input documents begins with literature study and data collection, analysis, design of standard forms of documents, tool design, tool development, and testing. At the analysis stage, a logical framework and element structure is formulated in a goal-oriented approach. Furthermore, the standard form of input documents is developed. The standard form of the document becomes a guideline for developing tools to process data requirements from elicitation results. Tool testing is carried out using black-box testing. The test results show that the tool can work according to the planned function. The trial of the use of the tools was carried out using five requirements datasets. The results of testing and using the tool through the requirements dataset show that GoEliTools can be used to record data on the requirements of several users for the development of an information system.

Features requirement elicitation process for designing a chatbot application

AbstractToday, chatbots are being employed across a wide range of businesses. The researchers will present the outcome of the literature exploration on attributes of chatbots that later become a reference to build a new chatbot for banking use. The goal is to use human natural language as an interaction medium to aid humans in doing any prescribed activity. It is important to think about how people engage with chatbots in order to create a viable and high‐quality chatbot solution. The authors aim to help the chatbot community by determining what qualities a chatbot should have and how to build a chatbot for a bank. For the purpose of compiling useful chatbot characteristics, the researchers searched through a group of linked papers. The survey was done on a small group of chatbot end users in order to get a sense of what functionalities are most important to the end users. On the basis of a summary of the literature research and data from a survey, a set of chatbot functional features is proposed. This research intended to provide a quality feature criterion for creating a chatbot application.

Creativity and Design Thinking as Facilitators in Requirements Elicitation

Context: The use of Creativity and Design Thinking (C&DT) techniques favor the generation of new ideas based on the needs of users and stakeholders, and can support software developers during the process of requirements elicitation. Objectives: In this work, we aim to identify C&DT techniques to perform requirements elicitation proposed in the literature and in the industry and investigate the perception of software developers about using these techniques. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the C&DT techniques in the literature and a regional survey with software development teams from several companies in Brazil to identify which techniques found in the literature are currently being used by organizations. The survey also investigated the level of knowledge that software developers have regarding the C&DT techniques, and whether they agree that the use of these techniques can help to achieve a more effective process of requirements elicitation. Results: In the SLR, we identified 86 C&DT techniques that support requirement elicitation activities. In the survey, most developers outlined that C&DT techniques facilitate requirements elicitation and stated that they have more knowledge and usage experience with DT techniques than creativity techniques. The most used DT techniques mentioned by survey participants were: interview, brainstorming, uses cases, activity analysis, user story, and rapid prototyping, whereas for creativity techniques were: analogies, creativity workshops, focus group, questions list, clarification, none and combining ideas. Conclusions: The results showed that despite the existence of a large number of techniques in the literature, the developers’ lack of knowledge about these techniques makes them not used in the industry. However, the developers’ responses showed that the use of C&DT techniques helps to make requirements elicitation more effective.

Software requirements modeling from the selected set of requirements using fuzzy based approach

Software requirements (SRs) modeling is one of the sub-processes of requirements engineering whose aim is to model and design the SRs before the development of a project. Different techniques are employed for representing the SRs using goal concepts, unified modeling language, etc. There could be a large number of SRs after the completion of the requirements elicitation process. It is not practical to model the complete set of the identified SRs because of the cost, time, and other limitations of an organization. There should be some systematic methodology to identify and select those SRs for modeling that need to be implemented during the software development process. The selection of SRs from the list of the elicited requirements is a multi-criteria decision-making process. In this process different stakeholders participate in the selection of the SRs. Linguistic variables may be used by the stakeholders to specify the preferences of SRs. To deal with this issue, a method has been proposed using a fuzzy based approach so that the selected set of SRs can be modeled and implemented during the development phase. The proposed method is explained by considering the small and large set of SRs for an institute examination system. The ranking value of the functional requirements of an examination system is computed. Based on the ranking order, top three requirements are modeled using use-case diagrams (UCDs) and class diagrams. It is found that both diagrams represent different information about the requirements of an examination system and there is no overlap in the information captured through UCDs and class diagrams.

Software requirements modeling from the selected set of requirements using fuzzy based approach

Software requirements (SRs) modeling is one of the sub-processes of requirements engineering whose aim is to model and design the SRs before the development of a project. Different techniques are employed for representing the SRs using goal concepts, unified modeling language, etc. There could be a large number of SRs after the completion of the requirements elicitation process. It is not practical to model the complete set of the identified SRs because of the cost, time, and other limitations of an organization. There should be some systematic methodology to identify and select those SRs for modeling that need to be implemented during the software development process. The selection of SRs from the list of the elicited requirements is a multi-criteria decision-making process. In this process different stakeholders participate in the selection of the SRs. Linguistic variables may be used by the stakeholders to specify the preferences of SRs. To deal with this issue, a method has been proposed using a fuzzy based approach so that the selected set of SRs can be modeled and implemented during the development phase. The proposed method is explained by considering the small and large set of SRs for an institute examination system. The ranking value of the functional requirements of an examination system is computed. Based on the ranking order, top three requirements are modeled using use-case diagrams (UCDs) and class diagrams. It is found that both diagrams represent different information about the requirements of an examination system and there is no overlap in the information captured through UCDs and class diagrams.

Strategic servitization design method for Industry 4.0-based smart intralogistics and production

As to a new smart factory model, the make-to-order (MTO) strategy challenges small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. It enables quick response manufacturing (QRM) while responding to diversified, dynamic, and low-volume customer demands. Highly complex products are more common in low-volume than high-volume production, where high-volume production is often linked to simple products. In contrast, low-volume production is often related to customized products. Aiming to face these customized production requirements and accelerate strategic, innovative system design, a novel strategic servitization design model named the “4S” model is proposed. It’s a holistic design method that integrates the SERVQUAL model, the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), and the Kano model to effectively generate design strategies and concepts. Based on 4S, four key design approach phases are integrated: service experience survey, service quality diagnosis, strategic Kano-based design, and servitization system design phases. To demonstrate its feasibility and effectiveness, an example of a “make-to-order smart intralogistics and production system” (MTO-SIPS) is addressed to illustrate the requirement elicitation process. In phase 1, knowledge elicitation by expert interview is conducted. In phase 2, service quality gaps and contradictions are analyzed and eliminated by the extended SERVQUAL model and service TRIZ. New service innovative principles are generated. In phase 3, a kano-based survey is conducted and analyzed to understand customer requirements to determine suitable design strategies and conceptualize new service system functions. In phase 4, an expected servitization system was designed. Then, a maturity assessment was conducted to evaluate industry perceptions to evaluate the service’s acceptance. It is envisaged that this explorative study can offer valuable insights for the service providers who would like to conduct strategic servitization design for Industry 4.0-based smart intralogistics and production.

Developing ambient assisted living technologies exploiting potential of user-centred co-creation and agile methodology: the CAPTAIN project experience

Information and Communication Technology can turn older adults’ homes into smart living environments, decreasing the need for support and improving life quality. However, new technology has high uncertainty in terms of acceptance. Co-creation approaches are proposed to reach high acceptability, usability and satisfaction, but performance evaluations are sparse. This paper aimed at presenting the evaluation of a hybrid approach of Agile co-creation framework, specially designed for large, distributed consortia and cross-national collaborations.The new framework, leveraging the concepts of Design Thinking, Lean start-up, and SCRUM Agile, was tested in the H2020 CAPTAIN project. A network of stakeholders, built across five Living Labs, allowed the participatory design of the CATAIN technology through multiple iterations. A pre-post assessment questionnaire was administered to team components and used to compare partners’ perspective and satisfaction about CAPTAIN‘s and other projects methodologies. A longitudinal assessment throughout the iterations, using actionable metrics, monitored team morale and stakeholders’ engagement and satisfaction.The CAPTAIN development process resulted in a stronger involvement of the partners and a in better perception of requirements elicitation, design and development process than previous projects. Team morale was good and steady along the development iterations. Stakeholders increased from 91 to 132 along the iterations and more than 90% were satisfied.The tested framework went beyond usual participatory designs. It required stronger technical coordination, activity planning and communication among technical and pilot partners, but resulted in high satisfaction and engagement of both team members and stakeholders, showing its validity as a development approach for H2020 projects.

Elicitation, Computational Representation, and Analysis of Mission and System Requirements

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Strategies for evaluating the impact of mission requirements on the design of mission-specific vehicles are needed to enable project managers to assess potential benefits and associated costs of changes in requirements. Top-level requirements that cause significant cascaded difficulties on lower-level requirements should be identified and presented to decision-makers. This paper aims to introduce formal methods and computational tools to enable the analysis and allocation of mission requirements. Initial results for three interrelated research problems are discussed: (1) understanding the current practices of interrelationships between requirements. the requirements elicitation and change management processes using a case study approach; (2) requirement elicitation using gamification strategies; and (3) computational representation of the technical requirements and identification The case study approach involves interviewing the stakeholders that participate in the requirements generation process to collect data on the current practices of requirements elicitation. Systematic requirements generation strategies, change management processes, limitations, and areas for improvement are the outcomes of this study. A gamification strategy is also deployed to study requirements elicitation and change management processes by incentivizing the users based on their performance on a set of metrics. Two surveys, one with and the other without gamification, are designed to study the impact of gamification methods on requirements elicitation. Lastly, text analytics tools are developed to extract requirements from textual descriptions and identify their inter-relationships to be stored in the requirement graph representation.</div></div>

Involving Older Adults During COVID-19 Restrictions in Developing an Ecosystem Supporting Active Aging: Overview of Alternative Elicitation Methods and Common Requirements From Five European Countries.

BackgroundInformation and communication technology solutions have the potential to support active and healthy aging and improve monitoring and treatment outcomes. To make such solutions acceptable, all stakeholders must be involved in the requirements elicitation process. Due to the COVID-19 situation, alternative approaches to commonly used face-to-face methods must often be used. One aim of the current article is to share a unique experience from the Pharaon project where due to the COVID-19 outbreak alternative elicitation methods were used. In addition, an overview of common functional, quality, and emotional goals identified by six pilot sites is presented to complement the knowledge about the needs of older adults.MethodsOriginally planned face-to-face co-creation seminars were impossible to carry out, and all pilot sites chose alternative requirements elicitation methods that were most suitable in their situation. The elicited requirements were presented in the form of goal models. In one summary goal model, we provide an overview of common functional, quality, and emotional goals.ResultsDifferent elicitation methods were combined based on the digital literacy of the target group and their access to digital tools. Methods applied without digital technologies were phone interviews, reviews of literature and previous projects, while by means of digital technologies online interviews, online questionnaires, and (semi-)virtual co-creation seminars were conducted. The combination of the methods allowed to involve all planned stakeholders. Virtual and semi-virtual co-creation seminars created collaborative environment comparable to face-to-face situations, while online participation helped to save the time of the participants. The most prevalent functional goals elicited were “Monitor health,” “Receive advice,” “Receive information.” “Easy to use/comfortable,” “personalized/tailored,” “automatic/smart” were identified as most prevalent quality goals. Most frequently occurring emotional goals were “involved,” “empowered,” and “informed.”ConclusionThere are alternative methods to face-to-face co-creation seminars, which effectively involve older adults and other stakeholders in the requirements elicitation process. Despite the used elicitation method, the requirements can be easily transformed into goal models to present the results in a uniform way. The common requirements across different pilots provided a strong foundation for representing detailed requirements and input for further software development processes.

Requirements Elicitation in ERP Implementation Process

Management software has gained an increasing preponderance over the years. Following that increased demand, as ERPs evolve and diversify, the characteristics and the correspondent needs of companies adopting them expanded significantly. To fulfill these needs, consulting companies in charge of implementing the ERP applications, resource to complex implementation processes. The value that consultants add to this implementation process comes from their experience and knowledge not only of the area of intervention and the specific characteristics of the software, but also from their experience in previous implementations in other projects. It is in this context, that transfer of knowledge between projects and consultants gains an increased importance.Due to its ability to model all possible products of a software product line in a given context, Feature Model concept has been used in the ERP domain with the objective of reducing time and costs in ERP projects by mapping requirements to correspondent past configurations and customizations.Using feature model and user stories methods, this work analyzes the development and implementation of a suggested ERP configuration methodology in a consulting company, aiming to improve the transfer of knowledge within projects and consultants. Following design research methods, the methodology developed was tested through an ERP implementation project.Findings of this work include an easier traceability between requirements and features, reutilization of configurations between projects and improved uniformization regarding requirements elicitation process.

A Tacit-Knowledge-Based Requirements Elicitation Model Supporting COVID-19 Context

Effective software requirements elicitation plays a vital role in the success or failure of a project. However, ambiguity in the requirement’s statements indicate the presence of a tacit knowledge, which ultimately act as a root cause of critical complications in later stages of software development as user’s needs might remain hidden. Additionally, the existence of numerous stakeholders escalates the problem as their perceptions may contrast mainly due to their experiences and roles in a specific application domain. Hence, witlessness of relevant stakeholder(s) and ambiguous requirements cause the compromise for a product quality. Eventually, it paves the way towards the failure of a project. Furthermore, COVID-19 has affected all walks of life, more specifically requirements elicitation process as it heavily depends on human-to-human interaction. Motivated by this, current study aims at identifying the requirements elicitation techniques and challenges through a systematic literature review protocol. Furthermore, we have performed an exploratory study to identify the traditional elicitation techniques that can be used specifically for eliciting the tacit requirements. Additionally, we validate the top 15 critical challenges in a normal and pandemic scenario. To validate the result’s authenticity and legitimacy, appropriate statistical tests have been applied on the obtained results. Based on the attained results, it is observed that transfer of tacit knowledge remains a most crucial challenge. To effectively handle the tacit knowledge challenge, we propose a novel conceptual model supporting COVID-19 context. Similarly, we employ expert-validation mechanism for empirically evaluation of the proposed conceptual model. Moreover, the current study provides the guidelines for the practitioners to mitigate the highlighted effects on the requirements elicitation process during current pandemic time. Finally, we believe that proposed conceptual model supports the practitioners in effectively gathering the tacit-knowledge based requirements in the COVID-19 context.