Requirements engineering

What's Requirements Engineering?

Requirements engineering (RE) or requirements gathering is the process of systematically eliciting, documenting and managing requirements for a system or product to be developed. This process forms the foundation for the entire development and ensures, on one hand, that all parties involved have a clear understanding of the project goals and requirements, and on the other, that the solution is aligned with the stakeholders' needs. The aim of requirements engineering is to create clarity and structure before development begins.

For many projects, good requirements gathering and documentation are key – and not just in software development.

What are requirements?

A requirement is a desired property or behavior of the system to be developed. Requirements serve as the single source of truth and thus form the basis for the estimation, development, testing and acceptance of a product.

We distinguish between different types of requirements, in particular functional and non-functional requirements.

A functional requirement (in the form of a user story) might look like this:
"As a user, I can enter my email address in a text field to receive a link to reset my password."

This is a (simplified) description of a function in an app or another digital product. In contrast, non-functional requirements deal with things like hosting, analytics, data migration, performance specifications and much more. These are all topics that aren't directly related to the functions and features of an app, but are just as important.

Why is requirements engineering so important?

Clarity and transparency: Precise requirement definitions ensure that the design and development teams know exactly what needs to be implemented. This prevents misunderstandings and reduces the risk of errors and additional effort at a later stage. The requirements form the foundation for the entire implementation.

Efficient planning and cost estimation: Clear requirements enable a realistic assessment of the project scope and the resources required. The more detailed the requirements, the more accurately we can estimate how complex the implementation will be. This allows schedules and budgets to be precisely planned and maintained.

Quality assurance: Well-executed requirements engineering ensures that the end product meets stakeholder expectations and possesses the desired functions and properties. Requirements also include acceptance criteria. These define the conditions under which a requirement is considered fulfilled and are essential for quality assurance.

Risk mitigation: By identifying and clarifying requirements early on, potential risks and problems are recognized during the planning phase and can be addressed accordingly.

How are requirements documented and processed?

Requirements are documented in the form of so-called epics, features and user stories. These follow a clearly defined pattern:

An epic is a larger unit of work and describes a high-level requirement for a product. For example: "Users can create a profile."

Generally, several Features together form an Epic. Features are more detailed than epics but still describe what a product should do at a relatively high level. For example, the epic "Create profile" could consist of the features "Enter user name" and "Upload profile picture". 

Features are then further divided into user stories and described in even greater detail. User stories describe the desired end result from the end user's perspective. For the feature "Upload profile picture," the following user stories could be formulated, for example:

"As a user, I want to be able to select and upload a picture from my photo gallery so that my profile feels more personal."

"As a user, I would like to be able to crop my selected image before uploading it so that I can use the desired image section."

How documentation is handled often depends on what should happen next with the requirements. If the goal is an initial cost estimate, for example, a list in a Google Sheet or Excel file is often the simplest approach. When the requirements are ready for implementation, they move into an issue tracking tool that assists with planning and provides functions for distributing requirements across individual project phases (sprints). We use Clickup for this, or systems used by our clients such as Jira or Azure DevOps – we're experienced and flexible in this regard.

This is how we approach requirements engineering at Apps with love

We place great importance on making requirements engineering a collaborative and understandable process – also for those who aren't deeply rooted in software development. Depending on the starting point, we assist from A to Z or analyze, challenge, and validate existing requirements. We use various tools for this: much of the work takes place in workshops, and for validation, we rely on desk and user research. Once the requirements are in place, the next steps are planned: depending on the project methodology, the next phase involves visualizing the requirements or, in an agile approach, distributing them across sprints – often using story mapping.

Our expertise for successful requirements engineering

We've implemented several hundred projects and therefore know how critical it's to have clarity regarding everything a digital solution must be able to do.

We rely on proven methods and tools to precisely capture and document requirements. We're familiar with the most common "pitfalls" when drafting requirements and know how to avoid them.

Whether you're starting from scratch or have already developed requirements that you would like to validate, we'll find the best way to support you in the requirements engineering process. It will definitely be worth it!