Requirements Engineering Course

Lesson 1 • Types of Requirements

Classifies functional, non-functional, and constraint requirements with concrete examples. Enables students to categorise any requirement encountered in practice.

Lesson 2 • What Requirements Engineering Is

Defines RE, distinguishes it from general software analysis, and frames its scope. Anchors all subsequent chapters in shared terminology.

Lesson 3 • The RE Process Overview

Presents elicitation, analysis, specification, and validation as the four core RE activities. Provides the process skeleton that later chapters flesh out.

Lesson 4 • Stakeholders and Their Roles

Identifies who produces, approves, and uses requirements across project roles. Students map stakeholders to their influence on the RE process.

Lesson 1 • Observation and Ethnographic Methods

Applies workplace observation and contextual inquiry to uncover tacit knowledge. Complements interview data with behavioural evidence of actual work practices.

Lesson 2 • Prototyping as an Elicitation Tool

Uses low- and high-fidelity prototypes to elicit feedback that verbal methods miss. Bridges elicitation and validation by making requirements tangible early.

Lesson 3 • Interview and Survey Techniques

Teaches structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interviews plus questionnaire design. Students conduct and document interviews that surface latent needs.

Lesson 4 • Planning an Elicitation Strategy

Covers stakeholder selection, scheduling, and technique matching for a given project context. Connects elicitation planning to overall project scope management.

Lesson 1 • Use Case Modeling

Constructs use case diagrams and narratives to model system-actor interactions. Provides a functional view of system behaviour aligned with stakeholder goals.

Lesson 2 • Conflict Detection and Resolution

Identifies requirement conflicts by type and applies structured resolution strategies. Produces a conflict-free baseline ready for specification.

Lesson 3 • User Story Mapping

Builds user story maps to visualise product scope and release planning. Connects agile backlog management to structured requirements analysis.

Lesson 4 • Organising and Prioritizing Raw Data

Applies clustering, deduplication, and initial prioritisation to elicitation outputs. Prepares raw data for formal modelling by removing noise and redundancy.

Lesson 1 • Acceptance Criteria and Definition of Done

Writes acceptance criteria in Given-When-Then and tabular formats tied to each requirement. Links specification directly to test case generation.

Lesson 2 • Document Review and Baseline Approval

Conducts structured walkthroughs and inspections to approve the specification baseline. Formalises the transition from requirements to design and testing phases.

Lesson 3 • Software Requirements Specification Structure

Structures an SRS document following industry-standard templates and section conventions. Ensures completeness and navigability for all reader roles.

Lesson 4 • Principles of Good Requirements Writing

Applies the SMART and EARS criteria to write individually testable requirements. Establishes the quality bar that all specification artefacts must meet.

Lesson 1 • Backlog Refinement and Re-Prioritization

Manages ongoing priority changes as business context and technical knowledge evolve. Keeps the requirements backlog current and actionable throughout the project lifecycle.

Lesson 2 • Weighted Scoring and Value Models

Builds multi-criteria scoring matrices that quantify relative requirement value. Enables defensible, data-driven prioritisation decisions for complex backlogs.

Lesson 3 • Prioritization Fundamentals

Explains why prioritisation is necessary and introduces the dimensions of value, cost, and risk. Sets the conceptual foundation for all prioritisation techniques.

Lesson 4 • Risk-Based Prioritization

Integrates technical and business risk into prioritisation decisions to front-load uncertainty. Reduces late-project surprises by addressing high-risk requirements early.

Lesson 1 • Requirements Reviews and Inspections

Executes formal Fagan-style inspections and lightweight peer reviews on specification documents. Detects defects systematically before they propagate to design or code.

Lesson 2 • Validation Metrics and Exit Criteria

Defines measurable exit criteria that signal when requirements are ready for design handoff. Prevents premature progression by establishing objective readiness thresholds.

Lesson 3 • Validation vs. Verification Concepts

Distinguishes building the right product from building the product right in RE context. Clarifies which activities belong to each concept and when to apply them.

Lesson 4 • Model-Based Validation Techniques

Applies formal and semi-formal models to detect logical inconsistencies in requirements. Provides rigour beyond natural-language review for safety-critical or complex systems.

Lesson 1 • Building a Traceability Matrix

Constructs requirements traceability matrices linking requirements to sources, design, and tests. Provides a practical artefact students maintain throughout a project.

Lesson 2 • Change Management for Requirements

Implements a change control process that evaluates, approves, and records requirement changes. Prevents scope creep while accommodating legitimate evolving needs.

Lesson 3 • Traceability Concepts and Rationale

Defines forward and backward traceability and explains their value across the project lifecycle. Motivates investment in traceability infrastructure by linking it to impact analysis.

Lesson 4 • Tooling for Requirements Management

Evaluates categories of requirements management tools by feature set and project fit. Students select and configure tooling appropriate to project scale and team structure.

Lesson 1 • RE for Large-Scale Systems

Addresses requirements decomposition, layering, and coordination across multiple teams. Extends single-team RE practices to program- and portfolio-level contexts.

Lesson 2 • RE for Embedded and Real-Time Systems

Specifies timing, resource, and interface requirements unique to embedded and real-time contexts. Introduces hardware-software interface requirements and timing constraint notation.

Lesson 3 • Strategic RE and Business Alignment

Links requirements to organisational strategy, business architecture, and value stream mapping. Positions RE as a strategic capability rather than a documentation activity.

Lesson 4 • Distributed and Global RE

Manages elicitation, analysis, and validation across geographically distributed stakeholder groups. Addresses communication, cultural, and time-zone challenges in global projects.