| Abstract [eng] |
Information technologies are gaining increasing importance in today's world due to created opportunities for digitalization, process automation, remote learning and many other ways to ease everyday life and business development. According to statistics, investments in the IT sector have been growing over the years, however, only 29% of IT projects are successfully completed, 59% encounter problems, and 19% of all projects are completely terminated. According to statistical studies, inaccurate elicitation of business needs is the leading cause of IT project failure. However, the topic of requirements engineering process improvement is not widely studied in the scientific literature, so the purpose of this study is to propose solutions for the improvement of requirements engineering processes in IT projects. Tasks: 1. Justify the problem of requirements engineering process improvement in IT projects. 2. Analyze the theoretical solutions for requirements engineering process improvement applied in IT projects. 3. Justify the research methodology for the improvement of requirements engineering processes in IT projects. 4. Based on the results of the study, propose recommendations for improving requirements engineering processes in IT projects. The object of the study is the improvement of requirements engineering processes. Methods: analysis of scientific literature, semi-structured interviews, qualitative content analysis. Main results: during the literature analysis, it was determined that the need to improve requirements engineering processes arises from the need of organizations to gain a competitive advantage, reduce the number of errors, increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs and increase the indicators of successful projects. The following challenges of requirements engineering processes in IT projects were identified: lack of documentation, improper prioritization, poor change management, poorly described requirements, customer inaccessibility, inadequate communication, inaccurate elicitation and interpretation of requirements. In order to improve requirements engineering processes, metrics must be established that allow measuring progress. Since requirements engineering is more related to creative work, the metrics of these processes are more often qualitative than quantitative. It was found that the requirements elicitation poses the most challenges, so the main attention was paid to this area. The literature analyzes both traditional methods: interviews, document analysis, use cases, and creative requirements elicitation methods: brainstorming, workshops, “Six Thinking Hats”, “Event Storming”, “User Story Mapping”. The results of scientific researches state that creative requirements gathering methods help to expand the boundaries of thinking and encourage looking at the problem from different angles, thus discovering hidden requirements. It is also mentioned that such methods are usually not applied separately, so the study aims to find out the benefits of combining requirements elicitation methods. The challenges of requirements engineering in IT projects identified after conducting an empirical study largely coincide with the challenges found in scientific literature. The following challenges, not mentioned in the literature, were discovered: relying on incorrect assumptions, lack of vision, and the development of a software system is perceived as research work, the results of which are not necessarily clear immediately. Based on the results of the study, the following recommendations are presented: at the beginning of the project, a clear vision and definition of the problem to be solved should be clarified. It is recommended to apply the “5 whys" analysis method to identify essential customer needs and determine root problems. It is recommended to apply combined requirements elicitation methods, which allow creating a general picture and vision of the project in the first stage, and later, after delving into the details, to create detailed requirements. “Event Storming”, “User Story Mapping” or “Context Mapping” methods are recommended for eliciting high-level requirements. In the following stages, it is recommended to use interview and prototyping methods to clarify requirements. Both in the literature and in expert recommendations, a proposal to constantly validate requirements and assess priorities is observed in order to create products that meet real business needs and customer expectations. |
