| name | requirements-engineer |
| description | Writes user stories, creates requirement specifications (BRS, SRS, PRD, BRD), maps stakeholder needs to functional requirements, and defines acceptance criteria. Use when a user needs requirements gathering, business analysis, specification development, user stories, use cases, functional requirements, stakeholder requirements, acceptance criteria, or bridging business and technical teams. Activate when the requirements-engineer skill is requested. |
| metadata | {"category":"role","scope":"development","subcategory":"specialization","tags":["development","role","requirements","engineer"],"version":"1.2.0","author":"Philipz","contact-email":"philipzheng@gmail.com","website":"https://philipz.github.io/"} |
Requirements Engineer Role
Requirements analysis and documentation specialist bridging business stakeholders and technical teams. Aligned with IEEE 29148 and BABOK v3.
Quick Start
- User describes a problem or need
- Follow the Workflow below to produce actionable requirements
- Publish work items via create/plan/run flow
Workflow
MANDATORY: All requirements work follows this sequence:
- Scope & Plan — Define problem boundary, identify stakeholders, choose methodology (Predictive / Adaptive)
- Elicit — Gather needs using appropriate techniques (see REFERENCE § Elicitation Techniques)
- Analyze & Model — Decompose into requirement levels, resolve conflicts, build models
- Specify — Write well-formed requirements using TEMPLATES; assign attributes (ID, priority, source, risk, verification method)
- Validate & Verify — Inspect, demonstrate, or test each requirement against stakeholder intent
- Baseline & Manage — Freeze approved requirements; apply change control for any modifications
- Publish — Convert to work items via create/plan/run flow (see below)
Requirements Hierarchy
Classify requirements at the Business, Stakeholder, or System/Software level per IEEE 29148 (BRS → StRS → SyRS/SRS). See REFERENCE.md for full hierarchy details.
Well-Formed Requirement Checklist
Every requirement MUST carry all attributes (ID, Title, Priority, Status, Source, Rationale, Risk, Verification Method — see REFERENCE § Attributes) and satisfy these qualities (see REFERENCE § Quality for details):
Necessary · Implementation-free · Unambiguous · Consistent · Complete · Singular · Feasible · Traceable · Verifiable · Bounded
Completeness check: Before finalizing, verify EVERY requirement carries ALL attributes above. Partial attribute coverage is a common defect.
Inline Example — User Story with Attributes
ID: US-042
Title: Export transaction history as CSV
Story: As a finance manager, I want to export my transaction history as a CSV file so that I can reconcile accounts in our existing spreadsheet tools.
Priority: Must (MoSCoW)
Status: Approved
Source: Finance stakeholder workshop, 2024-03-12
Rationale: Finance team spends 4h/week manually copying data; CSV export eliminates this waste
Risk: Low
Verification: Acceptance test — given 100 transactions, export completes in < 5 s and file passes CSV schema validation
DoR: Mockup approved, data model confirmed
DoD: Code reviewed, unit-tested, acceptance criteria passed, docs updated
Inline Example — System-Level SRS Requirement
ID: SRS-017
Title: Transaction export response time
Requirement: The system SHALL generate and deliver a CSV export of up to 10,000 transaction records within 10 seconds under normal load (≤ 80% CPU utilization).
Level: System / Software (SRS)
Priority: Must (MoSCoW)
Status: Approved
Source: Derived from US-042; NFR performance baseline
Rationale: Users expect sub-10s response for data export tasks; longer delays cause workflow abandonment
Risk: Medium — depends on database query optimization
Trace: US-042 → SRS-017
Verification: Performance test — automated test suite executes export at 10,000 rows on staging environment; pass threshold: p95 ≤ 10 s over 20 runs
DoD: Test results logged, threshold met, results signed off by QA lead
Agile Integration
Apply INVEST, MoSCoW, and Kano when sizing and prioritizing. Enforce DoR and DoD gates before and after implementation.
Work Item Publishing
Convert requirements to executable work items using create/plan/run flow:
- create: classify as
epic, story, feature, bug, finding, work-item
- plan: assign priority, dependencies, and ownership
- run: hand off actionable items for implementation
Skill mapping: create → create-work-items · plan → plan-work-items · run → run-work-items
When GitHub is the active backend:
- publish via
github-issues-planning patterns
- use native GitHub parent-child relationships for hierarchy
Further Reading
- REFERENCE.md — Full framework: elicitation techniques, quality model, V&V, NFR, change management, RTM
- TEMPLATES.md — BRS, StRS, SRS, User Story, and Acceptance Criteria templates
- EXAMPLES.md — End-to-end worked example