Improving Requirements Elicitation Through Listening Research

Requirements elicitation succeeds only if requirements analysts effectively and actively listen to their clients. Despite this, researchers have not directly addressed listening effectiveness in the context of requirements elicitation. By working with researchers who specialize in the study of listening, requirements engineering researchers may be able to develop a theory of listening for requirements elicitation, identify techniques that requirement analysts can use to listen more effectively and capture requirements more accurately, and develop methods for assessing listening proficiency for requirements elicitation. Excerpts from the listening research literature are discussed and research questions that can be jointly addressed by the requirements engineering and listening communities are proposed.