Maps of lessons learnt in requirements engineering: A research preview

Abstract

[Context and Motivation] "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana. From the survey we conducted of requirements engineering (RE) practitioners, over 70% seldom use RE lessons in the RE process, though 85% of these would use such lessons if readily available. Our observation, however, is that, RE lessons are scattered, mainly implicitly, in the literature and practice, which, obviously, does not help the situation. [Problem/Question] Approximately 90% of the survey participants stated that not utilising RE lessons has significant negative impact on product quality, productivity, project delays and cost overruns. [Principal Ideas] We propose "maps" (or profiles) of RE lessons which, once populated, would highlight weak (dark) and strong (bright) areas of RE (and hence RE theories). Such maps would thus be: (a) a driver for research to "light up" the darker areas of RE and (b) a guide for practice to benefit from the brighter areas. [Contribution] The key contribution of this work is the concept of "maps" of RE lessons. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.