A knowledge audit model to assess the knowledge in requirement elicitation process

Abstract

There is a great deal of knowledge in requirement elicitation process (REP), because there are different stakeholders with various knowledge backgrounds. Different backgrounds of knowledge lead to different ways of knowledge expression that negatively affect knowledge understandability and cause ambiguity. Knowledge ambiguity results in incorrect interpretation of knowledge and requirements. On the other hand, different stakeholders have different needs and expectations from the software to be developed. This problem causes conflicting information and also negatively affects the correctness of knowledge. Furthermore, stakeholders may ignore mentioning some knowledge because they think it is obvious or their requirements change over time, this negatively affects completeness of knowledge in REP. To mitigate these problems, it is necessary to identify and assess the knowledge in REP. Knowledge Audit (KA) is the process of knowledge analysis and assessment. Therefore, this research introduces a KA model to support knowledge communication among stakeholders through objectively assessing the knowledge in REP.

Knowledge Management for Informally Structured Domains: Challenges and Proposals

“…The importance of the application domain knowledge in order to improve the requirements elicitation process is widely accepted. However, currently the most of the methods and tools of requirements elicitation are designed for general problem domains, where problem-specific domain knowledge is not completely necessary [25]. The KMoS-RE © strategy emphasizes the importance of the application domain knowledge, either tacit or explicit, besides of proposing techniques and methods to facilitate its discovery, representation, sharing and appropriation among all involved in the project.…”

“…The model allows the incorporation of new proposals from methods and techniques to knowledge management models or perspectives of elicitation of requirements. For example, we are currently analysing the adaptation that is based on goals elicitation approach [26], the knowledge audit model [25] and the social network analysis [27].…”

A knowledge audit model for requirement elicitation: A case study to assess knowledge in requirement elicitation

“…The relationship among these components was also identified through reviewing the literature. Based on the theoretical study, an initial model was proposed; this model was described in Taheri, Pa, Abdullah, and Abdullah (). The KA components and their relationships were verified based on the results of a survey that is presented in Taheri, Pa, Abdullah, Abdullah, and Shafazand ().…”

“…Furthermore, the main focus of previous studies was on domain knowledge, whereas, as noted above, different categories of knowledge are involved in REP. For this reason, there is a need of KA model with the focus on knowledge assessment. The KA model for REP is developed and presented in a previous paper by the researchers (Taheri et al, ). In this paper, the methods used to develop and validate the KA model are elaborated; the results of validation are discussed as well.…”

“…To allay the above-mentioned challenges with respect to REP, significant care needs to be taken with the identification and assessment of knowledge (Taheri, Che Pa, Abdullah, & Abdullah, 2015). Because KA is the process of identification and assessment of knowledge, it is necessary to study KA in REP (Hylton, 2002;Leung et al, 2010;Liebowitz & Suen, 2000).…”