Improving the Requirements Engineering Process through the Application of a Key Process Areas Approach
Mahmood Niazi · 2002
The current software process improvement (SPI) standards have no specific section referring to requirements engineering (RE) process and they broadly treat it as a single activity in the overall development process. The RE process plays an important role in the software development process and its importance demands that it be recognized as a process in its own right and not simply as a phase of the software life-cycle. Research shows that in order to produce quality software greater attention must be given to the improvement of RE process. In this paper five key process areas (KPAs) have been identified from the research literature in order to improve the RE process. First, to support a goal-based approach in the RE process; second, to support the incremental and cyclical behaviours in the RE process; third, to encourage stakeholders involvement in the RE process; fourth, to support the management of RE process and fifth, to define a planning phase for the RE process. This research project aims to show that quality requirements will follow when the RE process supports these five KPAs. To implement these KPAs, a requirement elicitation, analysis and validation method (REAVM) is proposed. A framework has been developed from the research literature in order to evaluate the REAVM. A case study has also been conducted in order to test and evaluate the REAVM in the real world environment.