Guidelines for Managing Requirements Rationales

Requirements are identified and elaborated on the basis of stakeholders' decisions. The reasoning behind those decisions can be expressed as rationales. Systematic rationale management offers both short-term benefits, such as clearer requirements leading to fewer defects, and long-term benefits, such as simplified requirements evolution. However, little guidance exists for managing requirements rationales. This article presents guidelines to pragmatically capture, trace, maintain, and reuse such rationales. A list of questions augments the guidelines, improving their usability.