Pre-acquisition clustering of requirements - Helping customers to realize what they want

This paper introduces a new method to group requirements according to different topics to create a catalog of requirement clusters, which lead to an easier and more complete process of requirement acquisition. The creation of the requirements list of is one of earliest and most important steps in the product development process. The quality and quantity of the requirements have a high impact on the costs, the time needed and the required iterative steps in the product development process. Standards for this process are hard to find, for every development project is inimitably and therefore happens under significantly different conditions. Up to now the clustering of requirements is only used to structure the product-requirements after the detection for further and more systematic use. The method presented in this paper will help to structure requirements before the process of acquisition to create specific clusters, which lead the customer to a more complete and more efficient acquisition process. These clusters help the customer to substantiate his wishes. Furthermore the generated clusters represent a storage of implicit knowledge, in which information is recorded.