Requirements Elicitation Techniques: Analyzing the Gap between Technology Availability and Technology Use

Many software development projects fail because the resulting software does not satisfy user needs. The process of determining user needs is generally termed requirements elicitation. Although there are many possible reasons for software failures, if analysts practiced more effective requirements elicitation, fewer projects would fail. Although hundreds of requirements elicitation techniques have been developed by researchers to aid analysts in effectively determining user needs, few have ever been used by practitioners. This paper reports on research to study the nature of the gap between requirements elicitation technique availability and use, identifies the major factors that impact the transfer of elicitation techniques to practice, and explores how to improve the transfer of elicitation techniques from research to practice.