Efficiency and Effectiveness of Requirements Elicitation Techniques for Gathering Requirements from Children

Abstract: Different requirements elicitation techniques have been researched in the context of their applicability with children, mainly within the field of Human-Computer-Interaction. These techniques have not yet been compared in regard to their compatibility with children within the context of Requirements Engineering. The purpose of this case study is to compare five different techniques for eliciting requirements from children, taking into consideration the effectiveness and efficiency of each technique. These five techniques are Interviews, Questionnaires, Storyboarding, Observations and Focus Groups. The context of the case study is the development of a flight simulator at the military aviation museum Aeroseum in Gothenburg, Sweden. The different techniques will be used to elicit requirements from children in regard to the simulator. These resulting requirements will be taken into consideration in the design and development of the new simulator. We compared the efficiency and effectiveness of these techniques by looking at the number and type of requirements discovered, participant satisfaction, resources required, and how the discovered requirements were spread throughout domain specific categories. We observed notable differences between the techniques in the measured areas, with each technique having its own strengths and weaknesses. The performance of the techniques depends heavily on the social aptitude of the participants and their readiness to participate and comply with the technique at hand. As a result of this research, we present a set of guidelines that aims to aid the industry in developing more child-friendly applications and systems. We also hope that this work will be of benefit to the research community and highlight the need for further research within this topic.