Eliciting Web application requirements – an industrial case study

A small variety of methods and techniques are presented in the literature as solutions to manage requirements elicitation for Web applications. However, the existing state of the art is lacking research regarding practical functioning solutions that would match Web application characteristics. The main concern for this paper is how requirements for Web applications can be elicited. The Viewpoint-Oriented Requirements Definition method (VORD) is chosen for eliciting and formulating Web application requirements in an industrial case study. VORD is helpful because it allows structuring of requirements around viewpoints and formulating very detailed requirements specifications. Requirements were understandable to the client with minimal explanation but failed to capture the business vision, strategy, and daily business operations, and could not anticipate the changes in the business process as a consequence of introducing the Web application within the organisation. The paper concludes by a discussion of how to adapt and extend VORD to suit Web applications.