Requirements Elicitation Problems

Problems of requirements elicitation can be grouped into three categories:
• problems of scope, in which the requirements may address too little or too
much information;
• problems of understanding, within groups as well as between groups such as
users and developers; and
• problems of volatility, i.e., the changing nature of requirements.
The list of ten elicitation problems given in one source [McDermid 89] could be classified according
to this framework as follows:
• problems of scope
   • the boundary of the system is ill-defined
   • unnecessary design information may be given
• problems of understanding
   • users have incomplete understanding of their needs
   • users have poor understanding of computer capabilities and limitations
   • analysts have poor knowledge of problem domain
   • user and analyst speak different languages
   • ease of omitting “obvious” information
   • conflicting views of different users
   • requirements are often vague and untestable, e.g., “user friendly” and “robust”
• problems of volatility
   • requirements evolve over time