Requirements analysis: A review

Abstract

Many software organizations often bypass the requirements analysis phase of the software development life cycle process and skip directly to the implementation phase in an effort to save time and money. The results of such an approach often leads to projects not meeting the expected deadline, exceeding budget, and not meeting user needs or expectations. One of the primary benefits of requirements analysis is to catch problems early and minimize their impact with respect to time and money. This paper is a literature review of the requirements analysis phase and the multitude of techniques available to perform the analysis. It is hoped that by compiling the information into a single document, readers will be more in a position to understand the requirements engineering process and provide analysts a compelling argument as to why it should be employed in modern day software development. © 2006 Springer.