Attributes of a great requirements engineer

Context and motivation:

Several studies have investigated attributes of great software practitioners. However, the investigation of such attributes is still missing in Requirements Engineering (RE). The current knowledge on attributes of great software practitioners might not be easily translated to the context of RE because its activities are, usually, less technical and more human-centered than other software engineering activities.

Question/problem:

This work aims to investigate which are the attributes of great requirements engineers, the relationship between them, and strategies that can be employed to obtain these attributes. We follow a method composed of a survey with 18 practitioners and follow up interviews with 11 of them.

Principal ideas/results:

Investigative ability in talking to stakeholders, judicious, and understand the business are the most commonly mentioned attributes amongst the set of 22 attributes identified, which were grouped into four categories. We also found 38 strategies to improve RE skills. Examples are training, talking to all stakeholders, and acquiring domain knowledge.

Contribution:

The attributes, their categories, and relationships are organized into a map. The relations between attributes and strategies are represented in a Sankey diagram. Software practitioners can use our findings to improve their understanding about the role and responsibilities of requirements engineers.