ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Abstract Software requirements arrive in different shapes and forms to development organizations. This is particularly the case in market-driven requirements engineering, where the requirements are on products rather than directed towards projects. This results in challenges related to making different requirements comparable. In particular, this situation was identified in a collaborative effort between academia and industry. A model, with four abstraction levels, was developed as a response to the industrial need. The model allows for placement of requirements on different levels and sup-ports abstraction or break down of requirements to make them comparable to each other. The model was successfully validated in several steps at a company. The results from the industrial validation point to the use-fulness of the model. The model will allow companies to ensure comparability between requirements, and hence it generates important input to activities such as prioriti-zation and packaging of requirements before launching a development project