Challenges Faced by Stakeholders during the Requirement Engineering Phase: An Exploratory Study

Stakeholders are the backbone of any organization and play a vital role in the completion of any product. Different stakeholders with different roles, skills, natures, and experiences are involved throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Unlike other phases of SDLC, Requirement Engineering (RE) requires more stakeholders, active participation, focus, and collaboration. However, stakeholder involvement makes the RE phase more difficult and impacts other phases of Software Development. The inherent complexity of the RE phase is due to numerous factors, including diverse skill sets, language disparities, comprehension issues, and lack of interest, thereby rendering it particularly challenging for stakeholders. Literature also highlights some practices to resolve these issues, like enhancing communication and building trust among team members to overcome these challenges, but still, all these challenges affect software development in one way or another, and lead projects toward failure.