# Towards an Holistic Definition of Requirements Debt

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a comprehensive definition of requirements debt in software engineering, aiming to support better management and decision-making throughout the requirements lifecycle.

## Contribution

It introduces the first holistic conceptualization of requirements debt, encompassing various activities in requirements engineering, and outlines future work for validation and refinement.

## Key findings

- Defines requirements debt across identification, formalization, and implementation phases
- Lays groundwork for a requirements debt monitoring framework
- Highlights the need for future validation and refinement

## Abstract

When not appropriately managed, technical debt is considered to have negative effects on the long term success of a software project. However, how the debt metaphor applies to requirements engineering in general, and to requirements engineering activities in particular, is not well understood. Grounded in the existing literature, we present a holistic definition of requirements debt which include debt incurred during the identification, formalization, and implementation of requirements. We outline future assessment to validate and further refine our proposed definition. This conceptualization is the first step towards a requirements debt monitoring framework to support stakeholders decisions, such as when to incur and eventually pay back requirements debt, and at what costs