Requirements capture and analysis: A survey of current practice

This paper presents the findings of a detailed survey of 107 projects in which the iterative nature of requirements analysis was explored in economic terms. The survey was conducted from the point of view of the project manager. The results indicate that half of the projects take three or more interations to complete the requirements, that the use of methodologies and project characteristics affect the number of iterations, and that in half of the projects the number of iterations planned was different from the number actually carried out. The paper concludes by attempting to explain the relationship between the economics of the requirements process and the number of iterations through a spiral model of requirements capture and analysis.