Prototyping RE experiments in the classroom: An experience report

In this work we investigate the feasibility of prototyping industrial requirements engineering experiments within an educational environment, i.e. conducting a prestudy with students before performing the experiments in industry. We identify a set of constraints on the experimental design intended to make research participation more rewarding for our industrial partners and investigate the complexities of meeting both research and learning objectives within the same experiments. We report our observations and conclude that designing effective requirements experiments for an industrial environment, sensitive to industrial constraints, is a very difficult problem. Specific educational recommendations in visualization, prioritization, and customer interaction are also presented.