Teaching Agile Requirements Engineering: A Stakeholder Simulation with Generative AI

2026-03-13

AI Summary

This work addresses the common gap in students’ practical experience with user interaction in agile development and their limited understanding of the capabilities and limitations of generative AI in requirements engineering. To bridge this gap, the study introduces an innovative approach that employs a generative AI–powered virtual stakeholder simulation, guided by meta-prompting to facilitate student-led requirement interviews. The method integrates agile practices such as user story mapping and impact mapping for requirements elicitation and documentation, followed by structured reflective discussions to deepen students’ awareness of the technical boundaries and ethical implications of AI tools. Designed to be model-agnostic, the approach demonstrates flexibility and reusability across contexts. Multi-semester teaching evaluations confirm its effectiveness in enhancing students’ integrated competencies in cutting-edge agile requirements engineering and the synergistic application of generative AI.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling
• Search and Optimization: Metareasoning and Metaheuristics
• Natural Language Processing: Prompt Engineering / Prompting

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Agentic search
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data generation and simulation

Abstract

Context: The active involvement of users and customers in agile software development remains a persistent challenge in practice. For this reason, it is important that students in higher education become familiar with good practices in Agile Requirements Engineering during their studies. Objective: Our objective is to enable students to learn how to interact with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) through the use of a stakeholder simulation with AI Personas, while also developing an understanding of the limitations of AI tools in practical contexts. Method: In our courses, we employ a stakeholder simulation using GenAI, in which students conduct interviews with AI Personas through a provided meta-prompt. Based on the outcomes of these interviews, students apply agile practices (e.g., story mapping or impact mapping) to document requirements. The use of GenAI is subsequently reflected upon in a structured group discussion. Results: Through this approach, students gain practical experience by applying state-of-the art agile practices for requirements elicitation and documentation while simultaneously developing an understanding of the technical and ethical limitations associated with the use of generative AI. Conclusion: We have applied this approach over several terms and found that using a meta-prompt provides flexibility, allowing us to remain independent of specific large language model providers.

Problem

• Agile Requirements Engineering
• Generative AI
• Stakeholder Simulation
• AI Personas
• Higher Education

Innovation

• Generative AI
• Stakeholder Simulation
• Meta-prompt
• Agile Requirements Engineering
• AI Personas