Requirements Management in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry: The Way Forward
Yu Yu · 2010
Requirements are the basis for every project, defining what the stakeholders need from it and also what the end product must meet in order to satisfy that need. Requirements, therefore, form the basis for project planning, risk management, acceptance testing, trade off and change control. They are the essential elements of the briefing, design and construction stages of any development projects. However, past research studies overlook the lack of identification, management and traceability of the requirements during the life cycle of construction projects in the AEC industry. In addition, research on Requirements Management (RsM) in the AEC industry is very limited in comparison with studies on Requirements Engineering (RsE) in the system and software world. The aim of this paper is to investigate the need for and focus of research on Requirements Management (RsM) in the AEC industry. A comprehensive literature review on RsE/RsM in the system and software engineering as well as in the AEC industry has been conducted. The findings, imperatives and challenges for Requirements Management are discussed in this paper. We propose a framework for future research directions on Requirements Management in the domain of construction project management. This research is of significant value to professionals and academics in the AEC industry for improvement of RsM processes to achieve successful delivery of construction projects.