Is RE Research Relevant for Practitioners? First Results from the RE-pract Study

Abstract

The relevance of Requirements Engineering (RE) research to practitioners is a prerequisite for problem-driven research in the area and key for a long-term dissemination of research results to everyday practice. To better understand how industry practitioners perceive the practical relevance of RE research, we have initiated the RE-Pract project, an international collaboration between 10 researchers conducting an empirical study with the goal to assess the perceived relevance of RE research in industry. Based on a survey, practitioners rated the practical relevance of 435 RE research papers published between 2010 and 2016 at the major RE research conferences. We received 154 answers from all over the world with an overall of 2,164 ratings for single research papers. In this paper, we summarize our initial results.