Requirements elicitation techniques for overcoming a lack of domain knowledge

Abstract: Evidence suggests that requirements elicitation has been one of the fundamental activities in the development of software systems. Requirements elicitation entails systems analysts to interact effectively with users in order to gain knowledge of the proposed system. To ensure the quality of requirements elicitation, systems analysts might require domain knowledge of the proposed system. However, systems analysts might also be assigned to elicit requirements of a software system for which they lack domain knowledge. Thus, this research study presented a systematic literature review to identify all articles that discussed the techniques that can assist systems analysts obtain domain knowledge. This was achieved by following a systematic review protocol from which the researcher found 53 related articles. These articles were reviewed to identify which techniques might be used to obtain a specific type of domain knowledge such as behaviour, data, and process of the proposed system. The most interesting findings about this systematic review were that: - Most techniques were effective for obtaining domain knowledge of process. - A great number of techniques might be used for obtaining domain knowledge of behaviour. However, scenarios seemed to be the most effective. - Structure interview, card sorting, repertory grid, and prototyping were relatively a good fit for obtaining domain knowledge of data. Despite a great number of findings, this systematic review was also exposed to some validity threats. These threats were drastically reduced by following a well-defined systematic review protocol. However, not all of these threats were minimized completely and thus might need to be further investigated in future studies. In summary, this systematic review might be used as a guideline for helping both systems analysts who lack domain knowledge and practitioners in requirements elicitation. This systematic review also contributed to the body of literature in requirements elicitation techniques.M.Ing