A Systematic Literature Review of Recommender Systems for Requirements Engineering

Requirements Engineering (RE) is the first phase of a software project development. This phase aims to help project stakeholders discover, analyze, and specify the needs for a software project. In complex projects, requirement engineers deal with substantial requirements specifications and a large number of stakeholders. Studies have shown that poorly implemented RE processes are one of the primary causes of project failures including cost/schedule overruns, and failure to deliver promised functions. On the other hand, Recommender Systems (RSs) are software tools that support users in the recognition of appropriate items in a context where the amount of an assortment exceeds their capability to reach a decision. Therefore, RSs are needed to support several processes in requirements engineering. In this paper, the utilization of RSs in RE is examined by the use of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) through the years 2010 -2019. The results show how recommender systems can support several processes in requirements engineering. Finally, the utilization of recommender systems in requirements traceability is suggested as future work.