Web and requirements engineering [Editorial]

In the last decade, the number and complexity of Web-based software systems and the amount of information they offer have been continuously growing. In the context of Software Engineering, design methods and methodologies were introduced to provide mechanisms to develop these complex Web applications and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) in a systematic way. Most of these methodologies focus on implementation and neglect other tasks such as requirement analysis and quality management. However, in the development of traditional (non-Web) applications both practitioners and process experts regard requirements engineering as a phase of crucial relevance in the development process. It is well-known that the most common and time-consuming errors as well as the most expensive ones to repair, are errors that arise from inadequate engineering of requirements. Therefore, although the relevance of Requirements Engineering is well known these techniques should be studied more widely in the Web Engineering community. The problems in the Web development processes are mainly caused by the size and changing nature of the stakeholders involved, the diversity of requirements, including navigation and self-adaptivity requirements, as well as the usability and the user experience challenges.