Negotiation in the requirements elicitation and analysis process

Abstract

Requirements elicitation and analysis is the most crucial process in requirements engineering since it moulds the shape of the desired end product. In dealing with a system's stakeholders in a process to elicit the requirements, conflicts are inevitable. In the initial state, usually, all the stakeholders have a common goal; to build a system. However as an individual, they do have their own perspectives and perceptions. In addition, the stakeholders, either as a representative of end users, a decision maker or a developer, have different concerns, priorities and responsibilities. This paper considers introducing negotiation spiral model with supporting elements in the requirements elicitation and analysis process. Many researches show that negotiation is necessary to handle conflicts in order to gain better requirements. It is believed that the quality of intermediate deliverables like the requirements document is correlated with the quality of the final product. The advantages of implementing negotiation process are well aligned requirements by all the stakeholders, improved system quality, a sound basis for resource estimation and less resource wastage. © 2008 IEEE.