What the Job Market Wants from Requirements Engineers? An Empirical Analysis of Online Job Ads from the Netherlands

Recently, the requirements engineering (RE) community recognized the increasing need for understanding how industry perceives the jobs of requirements engineers and their most important qualifications. This study contributes to the community's research effort on this topic. Based on an analysis of RE job ads in 2015 from the Netherlands' three most popular online IT-job portals, we identified those task and skill related qualifications that employers demand from RE job seekers. We found that the job titles used in industry for the specialists that the RE community calls 'requirements engineers', are 'Product Owner' and 'Analyst', be it Information Analyst, Application Analyst, or Data Analyst. Those professionals supposed to perform RE tasks also take responsibility for additional tasks including quality assurance, realization and deployment, and project management. The most in-demand skills are soft skills: proficiency in Dutch and English, plus communication and analytical skills. RE is perceived as an occupation for experts, with 23% of all job ads asking explicitly for RE experience and 63% asking for experience similar to RE.