Improving Requirements Engineering in Dynamic Environments

The cafe will take place from 18:00 to 20:00. Refreshments will be served from 17:30 on. The venue will be the ETH Zurich main building, Pallmann-Zimmer (HG E 42).

Problem: Product development requires the input and collaboration of a wide range of people. Product success is dependent on how well the interests of users, customers, marketing, sales, product management, production, service, support, research, and development teams can be aligned.

While their input is necessary to creating great products, their different backgrounds and responsibilities often result in conflicting or rapidly changing requirement specifications, as well as communication and coordination problems. Traditional requirements engineering processes are no longer adequate to the challenges faced by knowledge-driven organisations, or the demands of today's customers.

Questions: How might requirements engineering be improved? What are the minimal documentation requirements and optimal communications media? How do we ensure that the interests of one side of the value and production chain (users, customers, etc.) are properly addressed by those on the other side (developers, suppliers, etc.)? What models or collaborative processes can be employed here?

Facilitator: The cafe will be lead by Samuel Fricker from the University of Zurich and Fuchs-Informatik AG.

Sponsors: Swiss Knowledge Management Forum (SKMF) and Fuchs-Informatik AG

Summary of Knowledge Cafe