Requirements elicitation is a fundamental step in a software development process since it is at this stage that the software begins to be designed. In some situations, the problems related to the failure of the software development project are due to an incomplete requirements elicitation, resulting in solutions that do not understand all the necessary functionalities or do not incorporate innovation. Despite the various techniques offered by Requirements Engineering, situations such as the growing application market and the need for innovation further increase the importance of understanding the user’s different needs. In this paper, we investigated how the journey map and personas techniques are being used in requirements elicitation in both the literature and the industry, along with the advantages, disadvantages and challenges of using these techniques. We conducted systematic literature review to identify the personas and journey map techniques used in requirements elicitation in the literature and industry. In addition, we conducted a survey with 52 practitioners (software developers, users and managers) to investigate their perceptions of the use of journey maps and personas techniques in the requirements elicitation phase. Twenty-four primary studies were identified that address journey map and personas techniques in software requirements elicitation. In addition, most respondents stated that using these techniques facilitates understanding the requirements, providing better integration, collaboration and leveling of knowledge among the members of the software development teams. Our findings allow us to conclude that most of the software developers, users and managers that participated in the survey consider that the journey map and personas techniques are effective in helping understand the software requirements to be developed by the development teams.

Context: The use of Creativity and Design Thinking (C&DT) techniques favor the generation of new ideas based on the needs of users and stakeholders, and can support software developers during the process of requirements elicitation. Objectives: In this work, we aim to identify C&DT techniques to perform requirements elicitation proposed in the literature and in the industry and investigate the perception of software developers about using these techniques. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the C&DT techniques in the literature and a regional survey with software development teams from several companies in Brazil to identify which techniques found in the literature are currently being used by organizations. The survey also investigated the level of knowledge that software developers have regarding the C&DT techniques, and whether they agree that the use of these techniques can help to achieve a more effective process of requirements elicitation. Results: In the SLR, we identified 86 C&DT techniques that support requirement elicitation activities. In the survey, most developers outlined that C&DT techniques facilitate requirements elicitation and stated that they have more knowledge and usage experience with DT techniques than creativity techniques. The most used DT techniques mentioned by survey participants were: interview, brainstorming, uses cases, activity analysis, user story, and rapid prototyping, whereas for creativity techniques were: analogies, creativity workshops, focus group, questions list, clarification, none and combining ideas. Conclusions: The results showed that despite the existence of a large number of techniques in the literature, the developers’ lack of knowledge about these techniques makes them not used in the industry. However, the developers’ responses showed that the use of C&DT techniques helps to make requirements elicitation more effective.

The Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD) implementation has impacted activities carried out by the software development teams. Due to it, developers had to become aware of the existing techniques and tools to carry out privacy requirements elicitation. Extending our previous work, we have investigated the actions taken by organizations regarding the LGPD, specifically in software development, considering the perception of agile development teams after two years of the LGPD implementation. In addition, we also investigated the perception of an agile team regarding the practices, techniques, and tools previously cited by practitioners as potential solutions for use in this context, along with techniques already in use in the current context. We have conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) and selected 36 primary studies. Furthermore, we have conducted a survey with 53 IT practitioners and semi-structured interviews with ten practitioners. The LGPD principles are known by most agile teams and are being implemented by the organizations, although the existing tools to support privacy requirements elicitation are still underused by agile teams. Moreover, agile teams consider that software requirements and software construction are the most impacted areas of knowledge by the LGPD, and most of them use user stories in privacy requirements elicitation. Our findings reveal that agile teams and Brazilian organizations are more concerned with user data privacy issues after the LGPD became effective. However, agile teams still face challenges in privacy requirements elicitation.

Context: The implementation of the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD) may impact activities carried out by the software development teams. It is necessary for developers to know the existing techniques and tools to carry out privacy requirements elicitation. Objectives: In this research, we investigated the perception of agile software development team members from different organizations, regarding the impact that LGPD will have on the activities of the software development process. Methods: We conducted an online survey and a systematic literature review to identify the techniques, methodologies and tools used in the literature to perform privacy requirements elicitation in the context of Agile Software Development (ASD). In addition, we also investigated the perception of an agile team from a Federal Public Administration organization regarding the impacts of the obligation to develop software in accordance with the LGPD. Results: Our findings reveal that agile teams know the concepts related to data privacy legislation, but they do not use the techniques proposed in the literature to perform privacy requirements elicitation. In addition, agile teams face problems with outdated software requirements specifications and stakeholders’ lack of knowledge regarding data privacy. Conclusions: Agile teams need to improve their knowledge on privacy requirements.

This article aims at expanding the understanding of the use of quality requirements in line with the classification elements contained in ISO/IEC 25010 sub-characteristics. An analysis was made of 26 systems in a large-size public financial institution, including systems used outside and inside the organization. We used content analysis and the NVivo software to categorize and analyze 942 quality requirements. Considering that the quality requirements chosen were different in their levels of abstraction, detail, and completeness, criteria were defined to allow the classification. Based on the result obtained, it was found that a large part of the previously defined requirements follows the line of classification of the standard, in spite of their having different terms. The analysis also identified requirements that follow a common standard. It was also possible to identify the following high interest characteristics: Usability (31%), Performance Efficiency (20%), and Maintainability (15%). The Functional suitability and Compatibility characteristics had a smaller percentage of attention, each one with less than 3% of requirements identified.

Software requirements analyst work is considered crucial in the software development lifecycle. This paper presents a descriptive study on the software requirements analyst profile, considering Brazilian and Mexican markets, two countries that lead IT investment ranking in Latin America. To identify the competences expected by the Brazilian and Mexican markets for software requirements professionals was the study objective. The competency model considers a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Content analysis and Nvivo software were used to categorize 311 job ads for software requirements analysts between 2016 and 2017. In terms of knowledge, the importance of higher education for both countries was identified. "Using techniques and tools," "methodological competence," "good written communication," and "good verbal communication" were identified as relevant skills. The most important attitudes identified were: "analytical thinking," "organization," "interpersonal relationship" and "information sharing." Most of results obtained confirm requirements analyst skills pointed out by other authors, but there are some differences due to the geographic context. At the same time, findings can help improve the understanding of different approaches in the requirements engineering field in the two countries and professionals working particularly in the Latin American market.