ACRE: Selecting methods for requirements acquisition

A framework is presented that assists requirements engineers in choosing methods for requirements acquisition. Practitioners are often unaware of the range of methods available. Even when practitioners are aware, most do not foresee the need to use several methods to acquire complete and accurate requirements. One reason for this is the lack of guidelines for method selection. The ACRE framework sets out to overcome these limitations. Method selection is achieved using questions driven from a set of facets which define the strengths and weaknesses of each method. The framework provides guidelines for requirements engineering practitioners. It has undergone evaluation through its presentation to highly experienced requirements engineers. Some results from this evaluation have been incorporated into the presented version of ACRE.