Requirements Engineering

Abstract

This chapter discusses requirements engineering and discusses activities such as requirements gathering, requirements elicitation, requirements analysis, requirements management, and requirements verification and validation. The user requirements specify what the customer wants and define what the software system is required to do, as distinct from how this is to be done. The requirements are the foundation for the system, and if they are incorrect then irrespective of the best software development processes in the world, the implemented system will be incorrect. The process of determining the requirements, analysing and validating them and managing them throughout the project lifecycle is termed requirements engineering. Often, the initial requirements for a project arise due to a particular problem that the business or customer needs to solve. This leads to a project to implement an appropriate solution, and the first step is to determine the scope of work and the actual requirements for the project, and whether the project is feasible from the cost, time and technical considerations.