Requirements Engineering for Cloud Computing: A Comparison Framework

In industrial practice, cloud computing is becoming increasingly established as an option for formulating cost-efficient and needs-oriented information systems. Despite the increasing acceptance of cloud computing within the industry many important questions remain unanswered, or are answered only partially. Besides issues relating to the best architectures, legal issues and pricing models, suppliers of cloud-based solutions are faced with the question of appropriate requirements engineering. This means eliciting optimum understanding of the customer’s requirements and implementing this into appropriate requirements of the solution to be realised. This article examines selected, established requirements engineering methods in order to study the extent to which they can be applied to the specific requirements of cloud-based solutions. Furthermore, it develops a comparison framework containing the features of cloud computing. This comparison framework is applied to four established process models for requirements engineering. Recommendations for a requirements engineering system adapted to cloud computing are derived.