# How Do Requirements Evolve During Elicitation? An Empirical Study Combining Interviews and App Store Analysis

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00825 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.00825/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Aug 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Requirements Elicitation Follow-Up Question Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02858/) (2025)
- [GPT-Powered Elicitation Interview Script Generator for Requirements Engineering Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11439/) (2024)
- [Can LLMs Generate User Stories and Assess Their Quality?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15157/) (2025)
- [From Chat to Interview: Agentic Requirements Elicitation with an Experience Ontology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.05828/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Requirements are elicited from the customer and other stakeholders through an iterative process of interviews, prototyping, and other interactive sessions. Then, requirements can be further extended, based on the analysis of the features of competing products available on the market. Understanding how this process takes place can help to identify the contribution of the different elicitation phases, thereby allowing requirements analysts to better distribute their resources. In this work, we empirically study in which way requirements get transformed from initial ideas into documented needs, and then evolve based on the inspiration coming from similar products. To this end, we select 30 subjects that act as requirements analysts, and we perform interview-based elicitation sessions with a fictional customer. After the sessions, the analysts produce a first set of requirements for the system. Then, they are required to search similar products in the app stores, and extend the requirements, inspired by the identified apps. The requirements documented at each step are evaluated, to assess to which extent and in which way the initial idea evolved throughout the process. Our results show that only between 30% and 38% of the requirements produced after the interviews include content that can be fully traced to initial customer's ideas. Furthermore, up to 42% of the requirements inspired by the app stores cover additional features compared to the ones identified after the interviews. The results empirically show that requirements are not elicited in strict sense, but actually co-created through interviews, with analysts playing a crucial role in the process. In addition, we show evidence that app store-inspired elicitation can be particularly beneficial to complete the requirements.