RequirementsEngineering

Requirements engineering is a disciplined activity in software and system development aimed at identifying, documenting, validating, and managing the needs and constraints of stakeholders for a proposed solution. It encompasses activities such as elicitation, analysis, specification, validation, and ongoing requirements management to establish a common understanding of what the system must do and under what conditions it must operate.

Key participants include customers, users, business analysts, product owners, developers, testers, and project managers. Core activities are elicitation (interviews, workshops, observations, surveys, prototyping), analysis (clarification, prioritization, conflict resolution, modeling), and specification (functional and nonfunctional requirements, use cases, user stories, and formal or semi-formal descriptions). Validation ensures the requirements are complete, consistent, verifiable, and feasible, using reviews, prototyping, and acceptance criteria. Requirements management tracks changes, maintains traceability from origins to implementations, and supports versioning and baselining.

Artifacts commonly produced include a requirements specification document, a product backlog or requirements backlog, use cases or user stories, and a traceability matrix. Modeling techniques such as data flow diagrams, object-oriented models, or goal-oriented methods may be used to clarify and reason about requirements. Standards and frameworks providing guidance include ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148 on requirements engineering and IREB CPRE, as well as software life cycle standards that integrate requirements processes.

Requirements engineering is typically iterative and can be tailored to agile, waterfall, or hybrid approaches. It relies on ongoing communication among stakeholders and strong change management, since business needs and constraints may evolve. Proper requirements engineering reduces ambiguity, aligns the project with business goals, improves quality, and lowers rework and project risk.