Decision Support in Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering

The requirement engineering process starts with an abstract description of the user needs or problems and ends with a detailed and precise specification of these user needs. Therefore, the analyst needs to decide several times during the requirements engineering. The incorrect or inadequate decisions cause software failure or software that partially fulfills the user requirements. Consequently, it is mandatory to integrate the decision-making process at the beginning of software development. In other words, the tradeoffs can be discovered in the software requirements phase, and the alternatives can be identified. Furthermore, the decision-making process requires special attention since it applies to all requirements engineering activities, such as requirements collection, negotiation, prioritization, and planning. This paper emphasizes the advantages of integrating decision-making in Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering (GORE) and mapping the decision-making framework to GORE. Also, the paper discusses whether the decision-making process should be included in one of the GORE phases or an ongoing process covering all GORE phases.