Ann M. Hickey

Effectiveness of Requirements Elicitation Techniques: Empirical Results Derived from a Systematic Review

This paper reports a systematic review of empirical studies concerning the effectiveness of elicitation techniques, and the subsequent aggregation of empirical evidence gathered from those studies. The most significant results of the aggregation process are as follows: (I) interviews, preferentially structured, appear to be one of the most effective elicitation techniques; (2) many techniques often cited in the literature, like card sorting, ranking or thinking aloud, tend to be less effective than interviews; (3) analyst experience does not appear to be a relevant factor; and (4) the studies conducted have not found the use of intermediate representations during elicitation to have significant positive effects. It should be noted that, as a general rule, the studies from which these results were aggregated have not been replicated, and therefore the above claims cannot be said to be absolutely certain. However, they can be used by researchers as pieces of knowledge to be further investigated and by practitioners in development projects, always taking into account that they are preliminary findings

Elicitation technique selection: how do experts do it?

Requirements elicitation techniques are methods used by analysts to determine the needs of customers and users, so that systems can be built with a high probability of satisfying those needs. Analysts with extensive experience seem to be more successful than less experienced analysts in uncovering the user needs. Less experienced analysts often select a technique based on one of two reasons: (a) it is the only one they know, or (b) they think that a technique that worked well last time must surely be appropriate this time. We present the results of in-depth interviews with some of the worlds most experienced analysts. These results demonstrate how they select elicitation techniques based on a variety of situational assessments.

Enabling the effective involvement of multiple users: methods and tools for collaborative software engineering

The paper presents results of ongoing research to support effective user involvement during systems development projects. The Collaborative Software Engineering Methodology is presented as a framework that contains mechanisms to support three layers of user involvement: selected user representatives, user groups, and the broader user community. Productivity and user participation of traditional group meetings have been limited by chauffeured facilitation and by support of single-user tools designed for analysts rather than users. The paper introduces electronic meeting systems (EMS) modeling tools designed to allow users to work in parallel to contribute directly during meetings. These tools are easy to use while containing support features traditionally associated with CASE tools. The methodology includes a sequence of requirements abstractions that users engage directly including activity models, data models, scenarios, system use cases, and prototypes. This methodology is designed to help organizations respond to todays rapidly changing information processing needs.

A Quantitative Assessment of Requirements Engineering Publications --- 1963-2008

[Context and motivation] Two years ago, the authors conducted an extensive meta-analysis of the requirements engineering (RE) literature and reported a demographic analysis by date, type, outlet, author, and author affi liation for just over 4,000 RE publications. We have now added two more years and 1,200 more publications. [Question/ problem] The current paper continues this analysis to see if the same publication trends in RE continue or if unique new trends are emerging. It explores the past ten years in more depth, and separately analyzes the trends in journals. [Principal ideas/results] The study uncovers some continuing trends: (1) European Union countries continue to be the leaders in publishing RE papers, (2) the UK continues to surpass most countries in annual production, (3) the USA continues to lose market share, and (4) the same institutions lead the effort. But some new trends emerge as well: (1) total production of papers in RE has decreased since its high in 2005, (2) the average number of authors per paper has increased, (3) non-RE-specific conferences and non-RE-specific conferences have published fewer RE papers, and (4) some institutions strong in RE paper production in general are not as productive with respect to journal articles, and vice versa. [Contribution] This paper enables RE researchers to understand where RE research is being conducted and where results are being published. Although we report some interesting trends, the data cannot help us understand causes of these trends.

Establishing a foundation for collaborative scenario elicitation

Eliciting and integrating requirements from large groups of diverse users remains a major challenge for the software engineering community. Scenarios are becoming recognized as valuable means of identifying actions taken by users when executing a business process and interacting with an information system, and therefore have great potential for addressing requirements elicitation problems. A review of the scenario literature indicates that, although there is widespread agreement on the usefulness of scenarios, there are many unanswered questions about how to elicit scenario definitions from individual users and user groups efficiently.This research examines how increasing the structure of scenario definitions affects scenario quality and the efficiency of scenario definition by individual users. During a laboratory experiment, subjects defined scenarios using a general-purpose GSS, GroupSystems Group Outliner, with one of three textual scenario formats that ranged from unstructured to very structured. Scenario quality and the efficiency of scenario definition by users were compared across the formats. Results highlighted the efficiency of the unstructured format but revealed that all formats produced incomplete scenario definitions. Recommendations are made for an iterative collaborative scenario process and a special-purpose GSS scenario tool that may overcome some of these problems.

Setting a foundation for collaborative scenario elicitation

Eliciting requirements from users remains a major challenge for systems developers. The Collaborative Software Engineering Methodology addresses this challenge by combining the use of scenarios with Group Support Systems (GSS) technologies. This paper reports results of an experiment conducted to analyze definition of those scenarios using a general-purpose GSS. Scenario quality and productivity were evaluated and then compared for three textual scenario formats. Results highlighted the productivity of the unstructured format as well as the scenario completeness problems of all formats. Recommendations for an iterative collaborative scenario process and a special-purpose GSS scenario tool were developed to address these problems.

An Ontological Approach to Requirements Elicitation Technique Selection

Too many systems constructed by the software industry fail to meet users’ needs. Requirements elicitation is the set of activities performed to understand users’ needs for a system. Although most texts focus on a few elicitation techniques, there are numerous variations of these basic techniques. So, the question arises, how can an analyst understand all these techniques and their variations? Moreover, most experts today agree that the selection of an appropriate technique must be a function of the situation. But, a seemingly infinite number of situational characteristics exist. So, how can an analyst know which of these many situational characteristics should be taken into account when trying to select elicitation techniques? And, how does an analyst select a technique that makes sense given those situational characteristics?

Requirements Engineering Industry Needs

Requirements engineering is recognized as one of the most critical parts of the software development life cycle. The goal of RE is to develop good-not perfect-requirements and to manage them during development with respect to risks and quality. RE is the discipline within systems and software engineering that bridges the entire life cycle and thus determines success or failure of a product or project. From a business perspective, it is what makes the difference between a winning product and a mere set of features. Good requirements engineering practices in industry are critical to succeed-and survive-in ever-changing markets. Current trends are making effective requirements practices even more important. First, the demand for high quality and reliable software is growing rapidly. Second, we see an increasing number of projects being developed with different suppliers having a multitude of stakeholders with different needs and ambitions that have to cooperate to achieve a shared objective. Last but not least, global delivery models rely on the ability to efficiently distribute the software life cycle across locations.

The Role of China in Requirements Research

China was the first country to create gunpowder, the seismograph, the magnetic compass, steel, paper, and the suspension bridge. Yet in the twentieth century, China seemed to take a back seat to the West regarding the invention and exploitations of information technology (IT). This paper shows how China’s role in one area within IT, namely requirements engineering (RE), is dramatically increasing in the past 15 years, and in fact, China has become one of the world’s leaders in this area of research. This paper carefully examines the demographics of the entire corpus of RE publications and shows the roles played by authors from China. It discovers that although the demographics of RE research in Asia are very similar to the rest of the world, wide differences exist between individual Asian nations. Specifically, China’s rate of growth in RE publication production far exceeds any other Asian country.