Um processo para elicitação e documentação de requisitos em nível de usuário por meio de uma pesquisa-ação em uma instituição pública

Abstract

Requirements Engineering stands out as a key phase within Software Engineering, for establishing a strict and common vision between the client and the project team on software requirements. It is possible to find software coding specialists in a variety of programming languages currently used, but for software requirements few professionals are available. The definition of software requirements determines the scope and system boundary that must be provided. When System Analysts make mistakes during elicitation activities and requirements documentation, problems are likely to arise for next activities on the software development cycle. Costs incurred for problem-solving in the requirements documentation can rise significantly as new phases are initiated on the development cycle. It is common to find private companies or public institutions with di culties to elicit and document software requirements, either by the lack of a specific process, or because qualified professionals are not available to carry out these activities. The main motivation of this study was the necessity of resolution of problems related to user requirements documentation faced by a Public Institution during development of software projects. To solve this problem, a study was carried out using the action research methodology in this institution, with a goal of proposing and applying a user requirements elicitation and documentation process. In the process, a template was used for documenting requirements using SysML. During the execution of the research, a qualitative evaluation was carried out to verify the e ectiveness of the process. In this research, twelve System Analysts represented the public institution, distributed in five projects. The methodology used proved to be e ective and provided a participatory construction of problem-solving, involving researchers and participants. Results suggest that the intervention achieved positive results, including evidence of improvements in user requirements elicitation and documentation, in respect to activities previously performed at the institution.