Requirements engineering in small and medium enterprises

Little is known about requirements engineering practices in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper summarises the results of a workshop on requirements engineering held with practitioners from 10 SMEs. The current state-of-the-practice, as reported by the practitioners, differs significantly, and so do their individual problems due to contextual issues (e.g., in-house vs. contract development, type of product). The participants were presented with a set of current requirements engineering principles, techniques, methods, and tools. Important concepts were motivated by small case studies and experiments which we employed as a vehicle for technology transfer. The design of these and their results are described, as well as the practitioner’s rating of the techniques and methods.