Requirements Engineering Challenges in Building AI-Based Complex Systems

TL;DR

This paper explores the unique requirements engineering challenges in developing AI-based complex systems and proposes tailored processes informed by interdisciplinary research and industry insights.

Contribution

It introduces the RE4AI taxonomy and discusses how to adapt requirements engineering processes specifically for AI-driven complex systems.

Findings

Identification of key challenges in requirements engineering for AI systems

Proposal of the RE4AI taxonomy for process tailoring

Analysis of industry and research contributions to address these challenges

Abstract

This paper identifies and tackles the challenges of the requirements engineering discipline when applied to development of AI-based complex systems. Due to their complex behaviour, there is an immanent need for a tailored development process for such systems. However, there is still no widely used and specifically tailored process in place to effectively and efficiently deal with requirements suitable for specifying a software solution that uses machine learning. By analysing the related work from software engineering and artificial intelligence fields, potential contributions have been recognized from agent-based software engineering and goal-oriented requirements engineering research, as well as examples from large product development companies. The challenges have been discussed, with proposals given how and when to tackle them. RE4AI taxonomy has also been outlined, to inform the tailoring of development process.