There is a great deal of knowledge in requirement elicitation process (REP), because there are different stakeholders with various knowledge backgrounds. Different backgrounds of knowledge lead to different ways of knowledge expression that negatively affect knowledge understandability and cause ambiguity. Knowledge ambiguity results in incorrect interpretation of knowledge and requirements. On the other hand, different stakeholders have different needs and expectations from the software to be developed. This problem causes conflicting information and also negatively affects the correctness of knowledge. Furthermore, stakeholders may ignore mentioning some knowledge because they think it is obvious or their requirements change over time, this negatively affects completeness of knowledge in REP. To mitigate these problems, it is necessary to identify and assess the knowledge in REP. Knowledge Audit (KA) is the process of knowledge analysis and assessment. Therefore, this research introduces a KA model to support knowledge communication among stakeholders through objectively assessing the knowledge in REP.

This paper considers the importance of knowledge in software development organizations which are highly knowledge-intensive and focuses on knowledge audit in their requirement elicitation process. Requirement elicitation process involves a great deal of knowledge and there are several problems regarding eliciting and using the knowledge in this process. Misunderstanding, undefined scope, conflicting information and constant changes of requirements are some of the problems of requirement elicitation. A knowledge audit model is proposed in this paper to improve the requirement elicitation process by identifying knowledge components and knowledge sources existing in the requirement elicitation process as well as their relationships. A survey is then conducted to prove the validity of the model. The results support that the proposed knowledge components and knowledge audit model improves requirement elicitation.

This paper aims to develop a knowledge audit (KA) model with the focus on knowledge assessment in the requirements elicitation process (REP) to allay the problems of REP regarding knowledge communication. The principal problems with REP are knowledge conflict and the failure to mention a variety of knowledge and requirements changes. Despite of many existing studies relating to KA, inadequate effort has been directed towards investigating the full part played by the KA process in REP. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this gap using a software prototype that uses the KA model in the REP. This study proposes a KA model using an iterative triangulation method. The proposed model is validated through a case study by using a software prototype developed based on the proposed KA model to see if this KA model is effective for software developers in REP by improving the completeness, correctness, and understandability of the elicited requirements knowledge. Research findings are based on responses of 40 respondents from software development organizations. The results of case study confirmed the effectiveness of KA model for REP with respect to completeness, correctness, and understandability. This research answers the call to assess knowledge in REP by developing a KA model and prototype to fill the existing gap in this area. Overall, a KA model for REP is introduced and validated to identify and assess knowledge that supports knowledge communication in REP.

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