Requirements Management in Collaborative Research: Challenges and Applied Approach

In multi-sectoral research projects, requirements management faces challenges due to diverse partner needs and the necessity of a unified architecture. The NARRATE project exemplifies this by developing the “Intelligent Manufacturing Custodian (IMC)”—a platform integrating AI, Digital Twin, and IoT to enhance resilience and agility in manufacturing.

Key Challenges in Requirements Management

NARRATE’s challenge is integrating requirements from three distinct sectors: furniture manufacturing, additive manufacturing, and semiconductor production. These industries have unique processes, structures, and IT systems, making a simple standardized approach inadequate. Instead, each pilot is treated as a “system of systems,” where specific requirements are individually developed and later unified in an overarching architecture.

To ensure understanding across stakeholders, formalized requirements are necessary. Traditional, natural language-based methods risk ambiguity; thus, a hybrid approach combining formal specifications and accessible presentations was selected to meet diverse project needs.

Applied Approach: Process-Oriented Requirements Management

The NARRATE methodology is based on IREB standards and experience from previous projects, following these key steps:

1. Stakeholder Identification and User Stories: Relevant stakeholders defined their requirements through “User Stories,” creating a clear foundation for further formalization.
2. Categorization and Structuring: Using “Conceptboard” for collaboration, User Stories were organized in a matrix representing the supply chain needs. Stories were categorized by “physical activities,” “planning,” and “management” to capture strategic and operational needs.
3. Formalization and Modeling of Requirements: Informal requirements were formalized by identifying functional, operational, and performance needs, balancing individual requirements of each pilot.
4. Integration in MO²GO: Formal requirements were integrated in the MO²GO tool for visualizing relationships within the system architecture, providing traceability and alignment across users and processes.

Results and Future Perspective

The iterative requirements approach in NARRATE shows that hybrid methods can successfully integrate complex, multi-sector requirements by balancing formal precision with stakeholder comprehension, ensuring transparency across partners.

Future projects may benefit from refining this approach with automated data collection, supporting dynamic requirements management to meet growing demands for interoperability.

Projects like NARRATE bridge traditional and digital methods in requirements management, enabling complex, cross-sector systems to be successfully implemented.