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Analysis and Classification of Problems Associated with Requirements Engineering Education: Towards an Integrated View

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Abstract

The discipline of requirements engineering (RE) is hard for students to understand and challenging for lecturers to teach due to its complex and theoretical nature. In the literature, researchers have presented a number of requirements engineering education (REE) problems in universities, as well as those RE problems in industry that can be addressed by providing REE at universities. The goal of this study was to systematically compile, review and analyse all REE problems presented in the literature so that it is possible to see the whole range of problems at once; we call this analysis and presentation of the entire range of problems ‘an integrated view of REE problems’. Altogether 13 relevant studies reporting on REE problems were selected. Of the identified problems, those related to similar issues were grouped together, the groups were then divided into categories depending on the nature of the problem, and finally relationships between the groups of problems were established and presented as a hierarchy. An integrated representation was then produced that provides specific information on REE problems, including groupings of similar problems, reported and investigated problems, problem categorisation, high-level dependency, and detailed dependencies. It was concluded that some problems have already been investigated by researchers while others have only been reported in the literature and still need to be investigated, so they are the hot research areas for future research in REE. It was also concluded that if RE problems in university curriculum are addressed, this may have a positive impact on solutions to RE problems in industrial practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Software Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Rafia Naz Memon, Siti Salwah Salim & Rodina Ahmad

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  1. Rafia Naz Memon
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  2. Siti Salwah Salim
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  3. Rodina Ahmad
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Correspondence to Rafia Naz Memon.

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Memon, R.N., Salim, S.S. & Ahmad, R. Analysis and Classification of Problems Associated with Requirements Engineering Education: Towards an Integrated View. Arab J Sci Eng 39, 1923–1935 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-013-0901-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-013-0901-x

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