Requirement engineering (RE) is a crucial phase in software development where the goals, needs, and constraints of a software project are identified, documented, and analyzed. The primary tasks of the requirement engineering process typically include:
Requirements Elicitation: This is the process of gathering requirements from stakeholders. Techniques such as interviews, surveys, workshops, and observations are used to understand and document the needs and expectations of users, customers, and other relevant parties.
Requirements Analysis: In this phase, collected requirements are analyzed to ensure they are clear, complete, consistent, and feasible. Conflicting or ambiguous requirements are identified and resolved. The analysis may also involve prioritizing requirements based on their importance and impact on the project's success.
Requirements Specification: Once the requirements are understood and analyzed, they are formally documented in a clear and unambiguous manner. This documentation typically includes various types of requirements, such as functional requirements (what the system should do) and non-functional requirements (how well it should do it, e.g., performance, security).
Requirements Validation: This step involves reviewing and validating the documented requirements to ensure that they accurately represent the stakeholders' needs and expectations. This can be done through reviews, inspections, walkthroughs, and validation with stakeholders.
Requirements Verification: After validation, the requirements must be verified to ensure they are achievable and consistent with the project's goals and constraints. Verification may involve checking that the requirements are testable and that there are means to verify their implementation.
Requirements Management and Traceability: Throughout the software development lifecycle, requirements may change or evolve. Requirements management involves tracking changes, maintaining version control, and ensuring traceability between requirements and other artifacts (e.g., design, code, test cases) to ensure that changes are properly implemented and tested.
Requirements Communication: Effective communication of requirements to all project stakeholders is essential. Clear and concise documentation, as well as regular updates, help ensure that everyone involved in the project understands what is expected.
Requirements Prioritization: Not all requirements are of equal importance. Prioritization helps in determining which requirements should be implemented first or receive more attention based on their criticality and business value.
Requirements Negotiation: In cases where there are conflicting requirements or limited resources, negotiation may be necessary to reach a consensus among stakeholders. This involves balancing competing interests and finding compromises.
Requirements Tracing and Impact Analysis: Requirements tracing involves establishing and maintaining relationships between requirements and other project artifacts, such as design elements and test cases. Impact analysis helps assess how changes to one requirement
