Starchitects and Jack-Hammers: Requirements engineering challenges and practices in the construction industry (keynote)

Our built environment is a marvel of engineering. It is the continuously evolving product of collaboration between civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, architects, owners, governments, voters, contractors and more. Many of the requirements-related challenges that are commonly encountered in the engineering of software systems have been around for centuries in the construction industry. This keynote seeks to describe those requirements engineering problems that are intrinsic to the development of complex twenty-first century buildings and to explain the practices that have evolved to address them. It will highlight those requirements-related challenges that the construction industry is still grappling with and some new challenges that are emerging. The keynote will be illustrated with examples of complex building projects from Arup. The objective is to explore the potential synergies and the possible transfer of practical ideas between some of the oldest engineering disciplines and one of the youngest.