Understanding general concepts of requirements engineering through design thinking: An experimental study with students

Abstract

Teaching requirements engineering (RE) is one of the challenging parts of any software engineering (SE) education curriculum because it deals with understanding the problem from multiple perspectives and acquiring a holistic view of the system. Academicians have adopted several innovative approaches to teaching RE concepts to students, and design thinking (DT) is one�of them. DT integrates the needs of people, technology, and requirements and can help learn and apply human-centered techniques to solve problems. An experimental study is conducted with 315 undergraduate students to realize how they can learn the RE process effectively by combining DT methods with the RE concepts for an effective RE education. This�study intends to identify how this integration help students in using multiple elicitation methods, better visualization and understanding of the system requirements, and achieving various teaching objectives. An experimental study was planned and executed with students by integrating DT methods for RE activities from the beginning of problem definition to the final solution. The evaluation was done by collecting students' responses to pre-survey and post-survey questions capturing the students' perspectives on the RE and DT techniques. The students' responses suggested that the DT drive RE activities to improve their learning, thinking abilities, engagement with the team, and teamwork. Additionally, the students' artifacts during the DT process have also been evaluated. The use of DT methods helped in understanding the elicitation process and, consequently, helped reach the solution.