From conceptual modeling to requirements engineering

The critical impact of requirements analysis on software quality has long been recognized and repeatedly demonstrated. Recent surveys in Europe and the United States have confirmed the problem on a larger scale. In half of all cases, IT project failures can be attributed to poor-quality requirements documentation.

Improving the quality of this document, as well as the practice of Requirements Engineering (RE), is therefore a key objective. This objective is not easy to achieve, given the wide range of considerations to be covered, the multitude of processes and products involved, the multitude of stakeholders to be involved, and the variety of pitfalls to be avoided. RE is a discipline at the intersection of software engineering and systems engineering, which aims to provide models, methods, and tools for developing and evolving high-quality requirements documents. This article aims to provide an overview of recent developments in this relatively young discipline and to explore some of them in greater depth. EI broadens the traditional approach, which seeks to understand what the system must achieve by trying to understand the "why" of the system, its raison d'être.

The expression of "why" is expressed in terms of organizational goals and their impact on the requirements imposed on the information system. The article emphasizes this dimension, proposes and illustrates, through a case study, a goal-driven requirements engineering approach.