Using Storytelling to record requirements: Elements for an effective requirements elicitation approach

Existing requirements elicitation approaches have proven insufficient to record complete, consistent, and correct requirements. Studies conducted have shown that 40% of defects in software projects are due to incorrect recorded requirements. Therefore, some innovative approaches have been developed to deal with the lack of addressing the above-mentioned issues including video-based methods. Recent approaches using Storytelling to elicit requirements started to emerge in the field of requirement engineering. However, few experiences have been conducted to investigate which elements of the Storytelling technique are needed to conduct elicitation activities, and how effective Storytelling is in supporting, improving, and complementing existing techniques for the requirements elicitation phase. In this paper, we report on an experiment involving twenty-five domain experts from various industrial companies to collect requirements using a Storytelling technique for a particular ticket machine case. In particular, we investigate the effectiveness of using a Storytelling technique compared to a traditional brainstorming technique. We then sketch out the experimental design of the case study; outline various observations, results, and finally we lay out important findings about telling stories in the context of collecting requirements.