Requirements elicitation: towards the unknown unknowns

Alistair Sutcliffe, Peter Sawyer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Published conference outputChapter

Abstract

Requirements elicitation research is reviewed using a framework categorising the relative `knowness' of requirements specification and Common Ground discourse theory. The main contribution of this survey is to review requirements elicitation from the perspective of this framework and propose a road map of research to tackle outstanding elicitation problems involving tacit knowledge. Elicitation techniques (interviews, scenarios, prototypes, etc.) are investigated, followed by representations, models and support tools. The survey results suggest that elicitation techniques appear to be relatively mature, although new areas of creative requirements are emerging. Representations and models are also well established although there is potential for more sophisticated modelling of domain knowledge. While model-checking tools continue to become more elaborate, more growth is apparent in NL tools such as text mining and IR which help to categorize and disambiguate requirements. Social collaboration support is a relatively new area that facilitates categorisation, prioritisation and matching collections of requirements for product line versions. A road map for future requirements elicitation research is proposed investigating the prospects for techniques, models and tools in green-field domains where few solutions exist, contrasted with brown-field domains where collections of requirements and products already exist. The paper concludes with remarks on the possibility of elicitation tackling the most difficult question of `unknown unknown' requirements.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 21st IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering (RE?13)
PublisherIEEE
Pages92-104
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9781467357654
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Event2013 21st IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Duration: 14 Jul 201319 Jul 2013

Conference

Conference2013 21st IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE)
Country/TerritoryBrazil
CityRio de Janeiro
Period14/07/1319/07/13

Keywords

  • Requirements elicitation
  • models
  • techniques
  • common ground
  • tacit knowledge

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