Abstract :
The author takes the position that yes, as in most disciplines there are gaps between research and practice. However, since we are dealing with engineering, the novelty may also come from practice. He lists the main obstacles against my optimistic view, as well as the major incentives towards a better communication between industry and RE research. The obstacles are: 1) Lack of formal education, university level, on requirements engineering. Few universities are providing RE courses as part of their software curricula. 2) More and more customers demand constant evolution on very tight schedules. 3) The "model everything" mentality. Software engineers when faced with business models still adopt the idea that all the details must be in the model. 4) The technology transfer problem, mainly with respect to packing. Usually software research results are not packed as the industry expects. The incentives are: 1) A growing number of books on Requirements Engineering are becoming available. 2) Better commercial tool support. 3) A strong research community. 4) The market pressure for standards in software production, like the Capability Maturity Model and the ISO standards.
