Role of requirements engineering in software development process: an empirical study

Requirements problems are widely acknowledged to reduce the quality of software. This work details an empirical study of requirements problems as identified by eleven Australian software companies. Our analysis aims to provide RE practitioners with some insight into designing appropriate RE processes in order to achieve better results. This research was a two-fold process; firstly, a requirements process maturity was assessed and secondly, the types and number of problems faced by different practitioners during their software project was documented. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in problems faced by companies with mature and immature RE process. These findings suggest that a holistic approach is required in order to achieve quality software and organizations should not solely concentrate on improving requirement process. Through our empirical study we have also analysed problems identified by different groups of practitioners and found that there are more differences than similarities in the problems across practitioner groups.