Requirements Engineering is the process of identifying, eliciting, analyzing,

specifying, validating, and managing the needs and expectations of stakeholders for
a software system. In this article, we’ll learn about its process, advantages, and
disadvantages.
What is Requirements Engineering?
A systematic and strict approach to the definition, creation, and verification of
requirements for a software system is known as requirements engineering. To
guarantee the effective creation of a software product, the requirements
engineering process entails several tasks that help in understanding, recording,
and managing the demands of stakeholders.

Requirements Engineering Process

1. Feasibility Study
2. Requirements elicitation
3. Requirements specification
4. Requirements for verification and validation
5. Requirements management
1. Feasibility Study
The feasibility study mainly concentrates on below five mentioned areas below.
Among these Economic Feasibility Study is the most important part of the feasibility
analysis and the Legal Feasibility Study is less considered feasibility analysis.
1. Technical Feasibility: In Technical Feasibility current resources both
hardware software along required technology are analyzed/assessed to
develop the project. This technical feasibility study reports whether there
are correct required resources and technologies that will be used for
project development. Along with this, the feasibility study also analyzes
the technical skills and capabilities of the technical team, whether
existing technology can be used or not, whether maintenance and up-
gradation are easy or not for the chosen technology, etc.
2. Operational Feasibility: In Operational Feasibility degree of providing
service to requirements is analyzed along with how easy the product will
be to operate and maintain after deployment. Along with this other
operational scopes are determining the usability of the product,
Determining suggested solution by the software development team is
acceptable or not, etc.
3. Economic Feasibility: In the Economic Feasibility study cost and benefit
of the project are analyzed. This means under this feasibility study a
detailed analysis is carried out will be cost of the project for development
which includes all required costs for final development hardware and
software resources required, design and development costs operational
costs, and so on. After that, it is analyzed whether the project will be
beneficial in terms of finance for the organization or not.
2. Requirements Elicitation
It is related to the various ways used to gain knowledge about the project domain
and requirements. The various sources of domain knowledge include customers,
business manuals, the existing software of the same type, standards, and other
stakeholders of the project. The techniques used for requirements elicitation
include interviews, brainstorming, task analysis, Delphi technique, prototyping,
etc. Elicitation does not produce formal models of the requirements understood.
Instead, it widens the domain knowledge of the analyst and thus helps in providing
input to the next stage.
Requirements elicitation is the process of gathering information about the needs
and expectations of stakeholders for a software system. This is the first step in the
requirements engineering process and it is critical to the success of the software
development project. The goal of this step is to understand the problem that the
software system is intended to solve and the needs and expectations of the
stakeholders who will use the system.
Several techniques can be used to elicit requirements, including:
• Interviews: These are one-on-one conversations with stakeholders to
gather information about their needs and expectations.
• Surveys: These are questionnaires that are distributed to stakeholders to
gather information about their needs and expectations.
• Focus Groups: These are small groups of stakeholders who are brought
together to discuss their needs and expectations for the software system.
• Observation: This technique involves observing the stakeholders in their
work environment to gather information about their needs and
expectations.
• Prototyping: This technique involves creating a working model of the
software system, which can be used to gather feedback from
stakeholders and to validate requirements.
It’s important to document, organize, and prioritize the requirements obtained from
all these techniques to ensure that they are complete, consistent, and accurate.
3. Requirements Specification
This activity is used to produce formal software requirement models. All the
requirements including the functional as well as the non-functional requirements
and the constraints are specified by these models in totality. During specification,
more knowledge about the problem may be required which can again trigger the
elicitation process. The models used at this stage include ER diagrams, data flow
diagrams(DFDs), function decomposition diagrams(FDDs), data dictionaries, etc.
Requirements specification is the process of documenting the requirements
identified in the analysis step in a clear, consistent, and unambiguous manner. This
step also involves prioritizing and grouping the requirements into manageable
chunks.
The goal of this step is to create a clear and comprehensive document that
describes the requirements for the software system. This document should be
understandable by both the development team and the stakeholders.
Several types of requirements are commonly specified in this step, including
1. Functional Requirements: These describe what the software system
should do. They specify the functionality that the system must provide,
such as input validation, data storage, and user interface.
2. Non-Functional Requirements: These describe how well the software
system should do it. They specify the quality attributes of the system,
such as performance, reliability, usability, and security.
3. Constraints: These describe any limitations or restrictions that must be
considered when developing the software system.
4. Acceptance Criteria: These describe the conditions that must be met for
the software system to be considered complete and ready for release.
4. Requirements Verification and Validation
Verification: It refers to the set of tasks that ensures that the software correctly
implements a specific function.
Validation: It refers to a different set of tasks that ensures that the software that
has been built is traceable to customer requirements. If requirements are not
validated, errors in the requirement definitions would propagate to the successive
stages resulting in a lot of modification and rework. The main steps for this process
include:
1. The requirements should be consistent with all the other requirements
i.e. no two requirements should conflict with each other.
2. The requirements should be complete in every sense.
3. The requirements should be practically achievable.
Reviews, buddy checks, making test cases, etc. are some of the methods used for
this.
Requirements verification and validation (V&V) is the process of checking that the
requirements for a software system are complete, consistent, and accurate and
that they meet the needs and expectations of the stakeholders. The goal of V&V is
to ensure that the software system being developed meets the requirements and
that it is developed on time, within budget, and to the required quality.
1. Verification is checking that the requirements are complete, consistent,
and accurate. It involves reviewing the requirements to ensure that they
are clear, testable, and free of errors and inconsistencies. This can
include reviewing the requirements document, models, and diagrams,
and holding meetings and walkthroughs with stakeholders.
2. Validation is the process of checking that the requirements meet the
needs and expectations of the stakeholders. It involves testing the
requirements to ensure that they are valid and that the software system
being developed will meet the needs of the stakeholders. This can
include testing the software system through simulation, testing with
prototypes, and testing with the final version of the software.
3. Verification and Validation is an iterative process that occurs throughout
the software development life cycle. It is important to involve
stakeholders and the development team in the V&V process to ensure
that the requirements are thoroughly reviewed and tested.
It’s important to note that V&V is not a one-time process, but it should be integrated
and continue throughout the software development process and even in the
maintenance stage.
5. Requirements Management
Requirement management is the process of analyzing, documenting, tracking,
prioritizing, and agreeing on the requirement and controlling the communication with
relevant stakeholders. This stage takes care of the changing nature of requirements.
It should be ensured that the SRS is as modifiable as possible to incorporate
changes in requirements specified by the end users at later stages too. Modifying
the software as per requirements in a systematic and controlled manner is an
extremely important part of the requirements engineering process.
Requirements management is the process of managing the requirements throughout
the software development life cycle, including tracking and controlling changes, and
ensuring that the requirements are still valid and relevant. The goal of requirements
management is to ensure that the software system being developed meets the needs
and expectations of the stakeholders and that it is developed on time, within budget,
and to the required quality.
Several key activities are involved in requirements management, including:
1. Tracking and controlling changes: This involves monitoring and
controlling changes to the requirements throughout the development
process, including identifying the source of the change, assessing the
impact of the change, and approving or rejecting the change.
2. Version control: This involves keeping track of different versions of the
requirements document and other related artifacts.
3. Traceability: This involves linking the requirements to other elements of
the development process, such as design, testing, and validation.
4. Communication: This involves ensuring that the requirements are
communicated effectively to all stakeholders and that any changes or
issues are addressed promptly.
5. Monitoring and reporting: This involves monitoring the progress of the
development process and reporting on the status of the requirements.
Requirements management is a critical step in the software development life cycle
as it helps to ensure that the software system being developed meets the needs and
expectations of stakeholders and that it is developed on time, within budget, and to
the required quality. It also helps to prevent scope creep and to ensure that the
requirements are aligned with the project goals.
Tools Involved in Requirement Engineering
• Observation report
• Questionnaire ( survey, poll )
• Use cases
• User stories
• Requirement workshop
• Mind mapping
• Roleplaying
• Prototyping
Advantages of Requirements Engineering Process
• Helps ensure that the software being developed meets the needs and
expectations of the stakeholders
• Can help identify potential issues or problems early in the development
process, allowing for adjustments to be made before significant
• Helps ensure that the software is developed in a cost-effective and
efficient manner
• Can improve communication and collaboration between the development
team and stakeholders
• Helps to ensure that the software system meets the needs of all
stakeholders.
• Provides an unambiguous description of the requirements, which helps to
reduce misunderstandings and errors.
• Helps to identify potential conflicts and contradictions in the
requirements, which can be resolved before the software development
process begins.
• Helps to ensure that the software system is delivered on time, within
budget, and to the required quality standards.
• Provides a solid foundation for the development process, which helps to
reduce the risk of failure.