Volume 10, Number 1, 45-62, DOI: 10.1007/s00766-004-0196-2

An operational model for structuring the requirements generation process

James D. Arthur and Markus K. Gröner

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Abstract

Product quality is directly related to how well that product meets the customerrsquos needs and intents. Therefore, the ability to capture customer requirements correctly and succinctly is paramount. Unfortunately, within most software development frameworks requirements elicitation, recording and evaluation are some of the more ill-defined and least structured activities. To help address such inadequacies, we propose a requirements generation model (RGM) that (a) decomposes the conventional ldquorequirements analysisrdquo phase into sub-phases which focus and refine requirement generation activities, (b) bounds and structures those activities to promote a more effective generation process, and (c) implements a monitoring methodology to assist in detecting deviations from well-defined procedures intended to support the generation of requirements that meet the customerrsquos intent. The RGM incorporates ldquolessons learnedrdquo from a preliminary study that concentrated on identifying where and how miscommunication and requirements omission occur. An industry study (also reported in this paper) attests to the effectiveness of the RGM. The results of that study indicate that the RGM helps (a) reduce the late discovery of requirements, (b) reduce the slippage in milestone completion dates, and (c) increase customer and management satisfaction levels.

Keywords  Requirements identification - Requirements generation - Customer intent - Requirements engineering - Software engineering - Software methodology

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