An empirical study of software requirements verification and validation techniques along their mitigation strategies

Requirements engineering is very crucial phase of software development cycle. Different sub activitiesare performed during requirements engineering. Previous research shows that there are various techniques regardingrequirements verification and validation. These techniques can have different relative importance in differentsituation. Typically the requirements engineers don’t have proper knowledge regarding nature of each technique.Existing requirements validation & verification techniques differ in their ability to effectively cover the systemrequirements. It is highly desirable to conduct an empirical study on requirements verification and validationtechniques to know their relative importance in opinion of different experts. In this study we developed aquestionnaire based on requirements verification and validation techniques and their relative importance. Analysis ofthe results indicates that according to experts point of view (based on their experiences and judgments) ambiguousrequirements are the biggest reason behind requirements verification and validation issues. Experts do believe thatreview and inspection are the best mitigation strategies to remove or minimize requirements verification andvalidation challenges.