Information is all you need: Requirements Engineering Quality Reframed

2026-07-23

AI Summary

This study addresses the lack of a unified theoretical foundation in traditional requirements engineering (RE) quality assessment, which often fails to integrate artifact- and process-oriented perspectives and overlooks information transmission efficiency. To bridge this gap, the paper proposes a holistic theoretical framework that models RE as a flow of information particles among stakeholders, developers, testers, and artifacts, with information flow as its core construct. Building on this model, the authors develop a simulation system to capture dynamic interactions and information exchanges across roles. The simulation reveals how high-quality requirements specifications can be inadvertently bypassed in agile environments and yields actionable insights for improving RE processes. This work establishes a theoretical basis for optimizing information flow, enhancing RE effectiveness, and understanding the underlying causes of success or failure in requirements engineering practices.

Abstract

To move beyond this vague appeal to context, this vision proposes a novel holistic theory of requirements engineering (RE) quality. This theory models how information particles, i.e., discrete pieces of domain knowledge, are transferred between roles and artifacts. Since the RE process is ultimately an information transfer, holistic RE quality depends on the properties of information flow, i.e., how effectively and efficiently information is transferred from sources (like stakeholders) to targets (like developers and testers), uniting both artifact- and process-based perspectives on RE quality. In an exemplary simulation of the theory we illustrate why a high-quality specification gets bypassed in an agile context, thereby demonstrating that a simulation can provide actionable insights into calibrating the RE process to optimize the information flow. Beyond organizational applications, we envision that the theory can serve as a coherent theoretical framework for understanding the success or failure of RE processes and artifacts.

Problem

• requirements engineering
• information flow
• quality
• holistic theory
• information transfer

Innovation

• requirements engineering
• information flow
• information particles
• quality theory
• process simulation