NLP for Requirements Engineering: Tasks, Techniques, Tools, and Technologies

Abstract

Requirements engineering (RE) is one of the most natural language-intensive fields within the software engineering area. Therefore, several works have been developed across the years to automate the analysis of natural language artifacts that are relevant for RE, including requirements documents, but also app reviews, privacy policies, and social media content related to software products. Furthermore, the recent diffusion of game-changing natural language processing (NLP) techniques and plat-forms has also boosted the interest of RE researchers. However, a reference framework to provide a holistic understanding of the field of NLP for RE is currently missing. Based on the results of a recent systematic mapping study, and stemming from a previous ICSE tutorial by one of the authors, this technical briefing gives an overview of NLP for RE tasks, available techniques, supporting tools and NLP technologies. It is oriented to both researchers and practitioners, and will gently guide the audience towards a clearer view of how NLP can empower RE, providing pointers to representative works and specialised tools.