Requirements Engineering

Fundamentals, Principles and Techniques

Second Edition, Springer (2025)

ISBN 978-3-662-69204-2

New and Revised Content, Major Updates

Most comprehensive description of requirements engineering fundamentals
Didactically sound and industrially validated framework to structure requirements engineering
Helpful checklists and guidelines to support the practical application of the concepts and the techniques presented

This textbook provides a comprehensive and well-structured introduction to the fundamentals, principles, and techniques of requirements engineering (RE). It presents approved techniques for eliciting, negotiating, and documenting as well as validating, and managing requirements for software-intensive systems. The various aspects of the process and the techniques are illustrated using numerous examples based on extensive teaching experience and industrial collaborations.

This second edition of Pohl’s widely used and trusted textbook provides a considerable number of updates, places a stronger focus on the consideration of the context, puts a stronger emphasis on conflict resolution, and includes new, expanded and revised techniques. The presentation aims at professionals, students, and lecturers in systems and software engineering or business applications development. Professionals such as project managers, software architects, systems analysts, and software engineers will benefit in their daily work from the didactically well-presented combination of validated procedures and industrial experience. Students and lecturers will appreciate the comprehensive description of sound fundamentals, principles, and techniques, which is completed by a huge, commented list of references for further reading.

Structure of this Book

The book is structured in five parts. Part I “Fundamentals and Framework” provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of RE, illustrates why it is a critical success factor for any software development project, and describes different ways of implementing it in an organization and its role in different software engineering process models. Part II “Requirements Engineering Context” explains the essential role and influence of the RE context on system requirements, defines basic terms,and introduces the concept of context perspectives to support context consideration. Part III “Core Activities” describes requirements elicitation, documentation, and negotiation and conflict resolution strategies. Part IV “Requirements Artefacts” explains the management of goals, scenarios, and solution-oriented requirements, including methodologies like i* and KAOS. Eventually, Part V “Cross-Sectional Activities” details four validation and three management activities.

Author

Prof. Dr. Klaus Pohl

Teaching Material

As soon as the book is published (at the beginning of 2025), extensive teaching material will be available on this page. It can be used for presentations in requirements engineering courses and is structured according to our requirements engineering framework. If you would like to have a first look at the teaching material, please send an e-mail to to: re-book@uni-due.de. We will send you some slide decks in advance and inform you as soon as all slides are available.

Details on the Content

The book is aimed at both beginners and advanced learners. Click on the chapter headings to find out more about the content and level of each chapter.

Part I Fundamentals and Framework

Part I Fundamentals and Framework

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
1. Software Systems	x
1.1 Information Systems	x
1.2 Embedded Systems	x
1.3 Software-Intensive Systems	x
1.4 Adaptive Systems	x
1.5 Consequences for Requirements Engineering	x
2. Software Project Failures	x
3. Requirements
3.1 Definition	x
3.2 Three Types of Requirements	x
3.3 Taxonomy for Quality Requirements	x
3.4 Impact of Constraints	x
3.5 So-Called Non-functional Requirements (NFRs)	x
4. Goal of Requirements Engineering
4.1 Establishing Vision in Context	x
4.2 The Three Dimensions of Requirements Engineering	x
4.3 The Requirements Engineering Process Within the Three Dimensions	x
5. “What” vs. “How” in System Development
5.1 Between Requirements Engineering and Design	x
5.2 Within Requirements Engineering	x
5.3 Within Design	x
5.4 Co-evolution of Requirements and Design	x
6. Embedding Requirements Engineering in Organisations
6.1 Typical Interrelations with Organisational Processes		x
6.2 Early Development Phase		x
6.3 Cross-Lifecycle Activity		x
6.4 Continuous Organisational Process		x
7. Requirements Engineering & Software Development Processes
7.1 Interrelation with other Development Activities	x
7.2 Traditional Software Development Process Models	x
7.3 Agile Software Development Process Models	x
7.4 Combining Traditional and Agile Development Principles	x
8. The Requirements Engineering Framework
8.1 Overview of the Framework	x
8.2 The Requirements Engineering Context	x
8.3 Three Core Activities	x
8.4 Two Cross-Sectional Activities	x
8.5 Interrelations Between the Five Activities	x
8.6 Three Types of Requirements Artefacts	x
8.7 Overview of the Book	x

Part II Requirements Engineering Context

Part II.a Foundations

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
9. Why Context Matters
9.1 Context and System Vision	x
9.2 Context Impact: Examples	x
10. Definitions
10.1 Context Objects	x
10.2 Context Information	x
10.3 Requirements Engineering Context	x
11. Context Consideration
11.1 Context Consideration in the Core Activities	x
11.2 Context Consideration in the Cross-Sectional Activities	x
12. System Decomposition and Context Consideration
12.1 System Decomposition		x
12.2 Sub-System-Specific Context		x
13. System Boundary
13.1 System Boundary: Definition		x
13.2 Defining the System Boundary		x
13.3 Scope of Development		x

Part II.b Context Perspectives

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
14. Foundations
14.1 Characteristics of a Perspective	x
14.2 Potential Benefits of Using Perspectives	x
14.3 Example: Four Worlds of Information System Development	x
14.4 Perspective-Based Context Object Consideration	x
15. Eight Context Perspectives
15.1 Usage Perspective	x
15.2 Subject Perspective	x
15.3 IT System Perspective	x
15.4 Development Perspective	x
15.5 Business Perspective	x
15.6 Innovation Perspective	x
15.7 Society Perspective	x
15.8 Technical Perspective	x
16. Example: Automated Car Park
16.1 Initial Context Objects		x
16.2 Access Control		x
16.3 Additional Functionality: Advertisement		x
16.4 Summary		x

Part III Core Activities

Part III.a Elicitation

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
17. Fundamentals
17.1 Three Elicitation Activities	x
17.2 Four Types of Requirements Sources	x
17.3 Use of Goals and Scenarios	x
18. Three Elicitation Activities
18.1 Identification and Selection of Requirements Sources	x
18.2 Elicitation of Existing Requirements and Context Information	x
18.3 Development of New and Innovative Requirements	x
19. Elicitation Techniques
19.1 Template for Describing the Techniques	x
19.2 Interview	x
19.3 Workshop	x
19.4 Focus Group		x
19.5 Observation		x
19.6 Questionnaire	x
19.7 Perspective-Based Reading		x
19.8 Design Thinking	x
20. Assistance Techniques
20.1 Brainstorming	x
20.2 Prototyping		x
20.3 KJ Method		x
20.4 Mind Mapping		x
20.5 Elicitation Checklists	x

Part III.b Documentation

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
21. Fundamentals
21.1 Goal of Documentation	x
21.2 Documenting Requirements	x
21.3 Documenting Context Information	x
21.4 Documenting Process Information	x
21.5 Representation Formats	x
21.6 Usage-Driven Documentation and Specification		x
22. Quality Critera
22.1 For a Single Requirements Artefact	x
22.2 For Sets of Requirements Artefacts	x
22.3 Acceptance Criteria		x
23. Requirements Attributes
23.1 Attributes and Attribute Schemes		x
23.2 Typical Requirements Attributes		x
24. Requirements Specifications
24.1 Types of Requirements Specifications	x
24.2 Reference Structures for Requirements Documents		x
25. Natural Language
25.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Textual Requirements	x
25.2 Non-Atomic, Intermingled Requirements Artefacts		x
25.3 Ambiguity of Textual Requirements	x
25.4 Techniques for Avoiding Ambiguity		x
26. Conceptual Models
26.1 Properties of Conceptual Models	x
26.2 Advantages of Conceptual Models	x
26.3 Semiotics of Conceptual Models		x
26.4 Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics of Conceptual Models		x
26.5 Model Creation and Model Interpretation: Potential Transformation Effects		x
26.6 Conceptual Modelling Languages		x
27. Combining Model-Based and Textual Documentation
27.1 Textual Annotations of Model Elements		x
27.2 Interrelating Conceptual Models and Textual		x

Part III.c Negotiation

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
28. Fundamentals
28.1 Goal of Requirements Negotiation	x
28.2 Requirements Negotiation: Definition	x
28.3 Achieving Win-Win Conflict Resolution Result	x
28.4 Benefits of Using Goals and Scenarios	x
29. Conflict Causes and Conflict Types
29.1 Conflict Causes		x
29.2 Conflict Types		x
30. Conflict Resolution Strategies
30.1 Negotiation Strategy	x
30.2 Creative Solution Strategy	x
30.3 Decision Strategy	x
30.4 Product Differentiation Strategy		x
30.5 Conflict Types and Resolution Strategies		x

Part IV Requirements Artefacts

Part IV.a Goals

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
31. Fundamentals
31.1 Benefits of Using Goals	x
31.2 AND/OR Decomposition	x
31.3 AND/OR Goal Trees and Graphs	x
31.4 Goal Dependencies	x
31.5 Context Impact on Goal Dependencies	x
32.Textual Goal Documentation
32.1 Seven Rules for Documenting Goals		x
32.2 A Template for Documenting Goals	x
32.3 Hints	x
33. Goal Modelling Languages
33.1 i* (iStar) 2.0		x
33.2 KAOS		x
33.3 Selecting a Goal Modelling Language		x

Part IV.b Scenarios

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
34. Fundamentals
34.1 Scenarios as Middle-Level Abstractions	x
34.2 Capturing Context Information in Scenarios	x
35. Scenario Types
35.1 Current-State and Desired-State Scenarios	x
35.2 Positive and Negative Scenarios	x
35.3 Narrative Scenarios	x
35.4 Misuse Scenarios		x
35.5 Descriptive, Exploratory, and Explanatory Scenarios		x
35.6 Instance and Type Scenarios		x
35.7 System-Internal, Interaction, and Context Scenarios	x
35.8 Main Scenario, Alternative Scenarios, and Exception Scenarios	x
35.9 User Stories		x
35.10 Use Cases	x
35.11 Use of the Different Scenario Types		x
36. Textual Scenario Documentation
36.1 Eleven Rules for Documenting Scenarios	x
36.2 Structured Documentation of Scenarios	x
37. Model-Based Scenario Documentation
37.1 Message Sequence Charts	x
37.2 Use Case Diagrams	x
38. Benefits of Goals and Scenarios
38.1 Benefits of Goal Orientation	x
38.2 Benefits of Using Scenarios	x
38.3 Goal–Scenario Coupling	x

Part IV.c Solution-Oriented Requirements

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
39. Fundamentals
39.1 Three Key Perspectives on a Solution	x
39.2 Documentation of Solution-Oriented Requirements	x
39.3 Differences between Solution-Oriented Requirements, Goals, and Scenarios	x
39.4 Relationships between Solution-Oriented Requirements, Goals, and Scenarios	x
40. Data Models
40.1 Entity-Relationship Models	x
40.2 UML Class Diagrams	x
41. Functional Models
41.1 Data Flow Models	x
41.2 Essential Data Flow Models		x
41.3 UML Activity Diagrams	x
42. Behavioural Models
42.1 Finite Automata	x
42.2 Statecharts	x
42.3 UML State Machine Diagram		x
43. Interrelations Between the Three Perspectives
43.1 Navigation System Example	x
43.2 Relationships between the Perspectives	x
43.3 Interrelation of the Perspectives Using UML		x

Part V Cross-Sectional Activities

Part V.a Validation

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
44. Fundamentals
44.1 Motivation	x
44.2 Quality Assurance	x
44.3 Six Validation Principles	x
44.4 Validation of Goals and Scenarios		x
45. Three Validation Activities
45.1 Validation of Context Consideration	x
45.2 Validation of Activity Execution	x
45.3 Validation of Requirements Artefacts	x
46. Validation Techniques
46.1 Artefact Commentary	x
46.2 Walkthroughs	x
46.3 Inspections		x
46.4 Prototyping		x
46.5 Comparison of Validation Techniques	x
47. Assistance Techniques
47.1 Perspective-Based Reading	x
47.2 Validation Checklists	x
47.3 Creation of Artefacts		x

Part V.b Management

Chapter	Classification
	Basic Level	Advanced Level
48. Three Management Activities
48.1 Management of the Requirements Engineering Context	x
48.2 Management of the Requirements Engineering Activities	x
48.3 Management of the Requirements Artefacts and Context Information	x
49. Requirements Traceability
49.1 Motivation	x
49.2 Three Kinds of Requirements Traceability	x
49.3 Traceability Relationships		x
49.4 Documenting Traceability Relationships	x
49.5 Visualisation of Traceability Information	x
49.6 Usage-Driven, Project-Specific Traceability		x
50. Requirements Prioritisation
50.1 Preparation of Prioritisation	x
50.2 Techniques for Requirements Prioritisation	x
51. Configuration Management
51.1 Three Levels of Configuration Management		x
51.2 Artefact Versions	x
51.3 Configurations of Artefacts		x
51.4 Baselines of Requirements Artefacts	x
52. Change Management
52. 1 Change Control Board	x
52.2 Documenting Change Requests	x
52.3 Change Management Process		x