Comparison of Research and Practice Regarding What We Mean by "The Right Software Requirements Elicitation Technique"

In terms of capturing software requirements, the most appropriate elicitation technique must be selected, but what does this mean? This paper makes a comparison between what researchers and software engineers see as adequate technique for capturing relevant information to meet software requirements. A systematic mapping of constructs which researchers define as good techniques is presented and compared with practitioners' opinions. The study identified 13 constructs that were finally whittled down to six. The software engineers' survey showed no significant difference between these constructs. This work demonstrates the divergence of views between researchers and practitioners about the quality of software requirement elicitation techniques. The results call for more empirical research to define a common way to measure the performance of techniques and so to support their selection.