Requirements engineering education using role-play training

This paper proposes a new method for use in requirements engineering education at universities. The method is based on two components: (1) group-work role-play training to elicit customer's real requirements; (2) a software agent to play the role of a domain expert supplying business knowledge to learners. Learners who have had no previous practical experience in defining requirements may follow a recommended procedure in order to elicit requirements. We have implemented two types of role-play training - with and without software agents' support. Twelve undergraduate students from the School of Computer Science at the Tokyo University of Technology participated in an experimental assessment of these two types of role-play training. The results of a subsequent questionnaire survey and portfolio evaluation of the goal model diagrams developed by the students showed that their requirements modeling skill levels had improved. However, because some students may have had no prior business experience, each role-play scenario needs to be carefully designed so that all necessary information regarding the strategy or vision in the problem domain is clearly laid out.