The integration of an RE method and AHP: A pilot study in a large Swiss bank

Abstract

This paper reports on a pilot study of the integration between the Systemic Enterprise Architecture Method (SEAM) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a requirements engineering project. The objective of the project, conducted in one of the major banks in Switzerland, was to select a common SOA tool that could satisfy the needs of two of the bank's main business units, investment and private banking. SEAM provided help in identifying stakeholders, eliciting their requirements, and analyzing these requirements. The resulting requirements were then grouped and translated into selection criteria for the alternative SOA tools. Based on these criteria, the stakeholders chose the tool to be purchased using AHP. We describe the project, the challenges we faced and the lessons learned. These relate to the nature and traceability of requirements, to the requirements elicitation process and to the relations between the bank's business units.