Volume 10, Number 5

A Grounded Theory of the Requirements Engineering Process

  Authors

Layla Alfawzan¹ and Alphonso Bellamy², ^1,2Eastern Michigan University, USA

  Abstract

This paper explores the requirements engineering (RE) process by conducting interviews with RE professionals and applying grounded theory to determine whether a theory of RE emerges.Analysis of the interviews revealed prominent data patterns that were used to model the RE process. The model depicts the RE process as one of establishing a match through discovery and streamlining, and which utilizes corrective measures in order to manage threats to establishing a match. The process involves many entities but is mainly conducted by RE professionals whose experience plays a major role in extracting complete requirements and detecting occasions of mismatch between customer needs and the software requirements, which represent their main concern during the process.

This paper contributes to the empirical analysis of RE by presenting evidence of the RE process in its basic form as carried out in industry, which may form as a building block for further RE research.

  Keywords

Requirements engineering, Grounded theory & Empirical software engineering