An Effective Approach To Requirements Engineering For Information Systems Consulting

Abstract

Information system (IS) consulting methodologies have evolved to reduce the failure of IS projects. Most studies attribute the failure of IS projects to incorrectly gathered requirements by IS consultants for different reasons, including the lack of effective requirements engineering (RE) methodologies, communication challenges between consultants and their clients, and a consultant's experience in the field. This theses proposes an Effective Requirements Engineering Methodology (EREM) conceptual system to solve those issues. Indeed, EREM incorporates the various key RE components into one mobile collaborative system, which simplifies communication between consultants and their clients. The elicitation, analysis, documentation, validation, and management steps are performed simultaneously, by displaying self-explanatory form-like guides, scoring instruments, and visual representations. Also, the proposed approach's success is independent of a consultant's experience in the field. A case study at a medium sized nonprofit organization was conducted to demonstrate EREM's practical implications.