Revisiting Requirements Elicitation Techniques

Abstract

The importance of Requirements Engineering (RE) has been well recognized by the research community in the last decade. There is no doubt to say that requirements phase is the foundation of the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) on which the entire software is built. With the proper management of various activities falling under requirements phase, a project can deliver the right solution within the time and budget. Requirement elicitation, requirement specification, and requirement validation are the important stages to assure the quality of requirement documentations. Out of these, elicitation is the first major activity, which requires proper attention by Requirement Engineers and other related stakeholders. Literature reveals various elicitation techniques, which can be used for the purpose depending upon the nature of project/s. In this paper, an attempt is made to cover all the major elicitation techniques along with their significant aspects at one place. Such a review would enable the concerned stakeholders to understand and select the most appropriate technique to be used for their project/s.

Identification of Requirements using Goal Oriented Requirements Elicitation Process

“…(B) Cognitive Techniques are based on multidisciplinary methodologies as the information on knowledge elicitation methods is widely scattered across the fields of knowledge engineering, anthropology, psychology, education, business management, counseling, cognitive science, linguistics, and philosophy [6]. There are different techniques like task analysis, protocol analysis, and knowledge acquisition technique.…”

“…The method also helps to elicit an initial representation, which can afterwards be refined by applying other established refinement mechanisms [6].…”

“…Major advantages are that it helps to elicit mental models where complex multivariate data is concerned and it is good for eliciting tacit knowledge also. However, it requires an agreed-upon set of objects and only models classification knowledge, not performance knowledge [6].…”

“…The major advantages are direct verbalization of cognitive activities, embedded in the work context [6].…”

A Systematic Report on Issue and Challenges during Requirement Elicitation

“…1). More specifically, Requirement Engineering is a process that analyzes the stakeholder and its needs, reason and importance of the systems to be developed [1]. Gathered requirements and their related errors are often neglected for coming stages of developing software that increases the effort and cost.…”