Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach, Second Edition

Chapter 8. The Challenge of Requirements Elicitation

Key Points

• Requirements elicitation is complicated by three endemic syndromes.

• The “Yes, But” syndrome stems from human nature and the users' inability to experience the software as they might a physical device.

• Searching for requirements is like searching for “Undiscovered Ruins”; the more you find, the more you know remain.

• The “User and the Developer” syndrome reflects the profound differences between these two, making communication difficult.

In the next few chapters, we will look at a variety of techniques for eliciting requirements from the users and other stakeholders of the system.^[1] This process seems so straightforward. Sit down with the future users of the system and other stakeholders ...