Shaping requirements for institutional Web applications: experience from an industrial project

In this paper we recount the experience and the lessons we learned trying to use concretely and in-depth a requirements engineering method (called AWARE) combined with a conceptual user-centered design method (called W2000) for the development of the institutional Web site of the Superior Council for Public Works of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation in Italy. The project is framed within its contractual context, and discussed through the process followed and the artifacts produced during requirements analysis and design. Lessons learned are depicted from a twofold perspective. From the one side they crystallize insights from the research experience of using and transferring the methods to industry, suggesting practical and methodological recommendations. From the other they express what a medium-size software company has experienced trying to use academic methods.