Course syllabus

Course-PM

DAT357 / DIT047 DAT357 / DIT047 Requirements engineering lp3 VT26 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering

Contact details

Examiner/course responsible:  Jennifer Horkoff  jenho@chalmers.se

Guest lectures:  

TBD

Teaching Assistants:

TBD

Who is giving feedback on what part of each assignment can be found here:  <Link to come>

Jennifer is ultimately responsible for all feedback, any issues can be handled by her.

Administration

• Study counsellor: svl@cse.gu.se
• Student office: studentoffice@cse.gu.se
• Student portal: https://studentportal.gu.se/english/my-studies/cseLinks to an external site.

Student Representatives

TBD

Course purpose

The course provides students with an introduction to the field of requirements engineering. It provides a solid foundation by defining foundational concepts like stakeholders, requirements, and specifications. It presents the process of eliciting, identifying, modeling, and documenting the requirements of a software product. The course covers desired characteristics of requirements. Emphasis is given to concepts and techniques such as quality requirements (e.g., usability, sustainability, security, privacy), creative requirements, and scenarios.

Schedule

TimeEdit

Study Period: Jan 19 2026 - March 13th 2026

Lecture session: Monday at 10:15-12

Lecture session: Wednesday at 10:15-12

Lecture/question session: Wednesday at 13:15-15:00

Preliminary course schedules, subject to change.

L = Lecture, GL = guest lecture, Q = question section, A# = assignment # due date

Week	Date	Time	Location	L/GL/E/Q/A#	Topic	What do I need this for?
4	January 19th	10:15-12	Babord	L	Introduction to RE & Course Practicalities
4	January 21st	10:15-12	Babord	L	Elicitation, Personas	A1, Exam
4	January 21st	13:15-15	Babord	L	Creativity, Scoping	A1, Exam
4	January 23rd	23:49	N/A	A0	Group Formation Assignment	A1-A3
5	January 26th	10:15-12	Babord	L	RE Concepts, Modeling (Context Diagrams)	A1, Exam
5	January 28th	10:15-12	Babord	L	Modeling (Use Case Diagrams, Goal Modeling)	A1, Exam
5	January 28th	13:15-15	Babord	L	Modeling (Goal Modeling) & A1 Questions	A1, Exam
6	February 2nd	10:15-12	Babord	L	Modeling (Journey Maps), RE Concepts,	A2, Exam
6	February 4th	10:15-12	Babord		RE Concepts, Quality Requirements
6	February 4th	13:15-15	Babord	Q	A1 Questions (Jennifer/TAs) (Optional)
6	February 6th	23:59	N/A	A1	Assignment 1 due
7	February 9th	10:15-12	Babord	L	Textual Specification, Requirements Quality	A2, Exam
7	February 11th	10:15-12	Babord	L	Requirements Quality, Scenarios	A2, Exam
7	February 11th	13:15-15	Babord	L	Templates & A2 Questions	A2, Exam
8	February 16th	10:15-12	Babord	GL	RE in AWS (tentative)	Exam
8	February 18th	10:15-12	Babord	L	No lecture due to CHARM	A3, Exam
8	February 18th	13:15-15	Babord	Q	A2 Questions (Jennifer/TAs) (Optional)
8	February 20th	23:59	N/A	A2	Assignment 2 due
9	February 23rd	10:15-12	Babord	GL	Security and Privacy Requirements (tentative)	A3, Exam
9	February 25th	10:15-12	Babord	L	Requirements Validation and Verification,	A3, Exam
9	February 25th	13:15-15	Babord	L	Videos	A3, Exam
10	March 2nd	10:15-12	Babord	GL	Sustainability and Safety	A3, Exam
10	March 4th	10:15-12	Babord	L	Traceability & Change Management	Exam
10	March 4th	13:15-15	Babord	Q	A3 Questions (Jennifer/TAs) (Optional)
10	March 6th	23:59	N/A	A3	Assignment 3 due
11	March 9th	10:15-12	Babord	GL	RE & AI, RE/AI in industry (tentative)	Exam
11	March 11th	10:15-12	Babord	L/GL	Course Review & RE Research & Exam Prep	Exam
11	March 11th	13:15-15	Babord	Q	Practice Quiz (Mentimeter)
12	Exam week

Course literature

This course has no book, the main source is the course slides.    You will also be provided with 5-10 page research papers and optional supplementary material papers to read.   

Some literature is mandatory, and some optional, only there if you need extra help. Read mandatory papers before class and be prepared to ask any questions you have about them.  Papers for each class will be listed in the lecture before and in the Canvas calendar.

Papers are available for free through Canvas.    Some of these are copyright, so don't post them openly online.  

Papers to Read

See the folder here:  https://chalmers.instructure.com/courses/38179/files/folder/Readings/Mandatory%20Readings

Papers to Use as a Reference (look up material if needed)

See the folder here:  https://chalmers.instructure.com/courses/38179/files/folder/Readings/Optional%20Readings

Course design

The teaching consists of lectures, group work, exercises, as well as supervision in connection to the exercises.

Course lectures and  help sessions will be in person, on Campus, unless otherwise announced.  

This course will use Canvas for all communication and assignment submission. 

Communication Policy:  whenever possible, questions should be asked in Discussions forum of Canvas.  You can email the instructor directly (jenho@chalmers.se), but any question which is generally applicable to class will be directed to the Canvas discussion forum.   I do not reliably answer messages in Canvas (I receive too many), so email is the best way to contact me.

Language of instruction: English 

How groups are formed 

Students select their own group of 4-5 students.  If a student does not have a group, they will be placed into one by the examiner, but they must make themselves known to the examiner by completing A0.

Examination form

Sub-courses

Examples:
U on exam, 3 on assignments:  overall grade of U

3 on exam, 4 on assignments: overall grade of 3

3 on exam, 5 on assignments: overall grade of 4

Assignment and Exam Grade Calculations

The final grade for the assignment part of the course (3 credits) will be an average of the grade for each of the three assignments.  In order to pass the assignments, you must get at least 40% on all three assignments.   If each assignments has a grade of higher than 40% and If the average grade across the assignments is passing, the students will receive a passing grade for the assignment part of the course (either 3, 4 or 5).  Failing one of three assignments does not necessarily mean there will be a failing grade for the assignments part of the course, as long as the grade for that assignment is 40% or more. 

Passing grades for the assignment parts of the course starts at 60%.   For the exam, passing is 50%.

The average grade for the assignments will be converted to Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3) and Fail (U) as follows.

Grading Scale for Assignments

Average % Grade	Final Grade
0-59%	U
60-72%	3
73-85%	4
86-100%	5

Grading Scale for the Exam

Average % Grade	Final Grade
0-49%	U
50-64%	3
65-79%	4
80-100%	5

Examination dates (Written Hall Exam)

The first examination date will be during the examination period in March 2026.  The exam is in person.  See the exact date and time as posted by the examination office (make sure to select Computer Science and Engineering in Departments then look for the box at the bottom of the page): https://studentportal.gu.se/en/your-studies/exams?i_da=1Links to an external site.

All re-examination dates are found on the same page, after the dates are announced.  

Failing the Exam

If a student, who has failed the same examined component twice, wishes to change examiner before the next examination, a written application shall be sent to the department  responsible for the course and shall be granted unless there are special reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6, Section 22 of Higher Education Ordinance).

In cases where a course has been discontinued or has undergone major changes, the student shall normally be guaranteed at least three examination occasions (including the ordinary examination) during a period of at least one year from the last time the course was given.

Failing Assignments

If the final grade of the assignments is a failing grade (one assignment <40% or average <60%), all three assignments must redone and resubmitted with a new case.  The redone assignments are handed in again at a date after course completion.  A new case will be provided.  Information on the resubmission and new case will be provided after the course is complete.    Redone assignments can be done in groups or individually.

Assignment Re-submission Dates

Retake examinations of the assignments part consist of written individual assignments. Note: if you and/or your group intend to resubmit the failed assignment part of the course, please notify the course responsible two weeks in advance.

Assignment re-submissions are due on the following dates.

• First Round:  May 15th, 2026
• Second Round:  August 22nd, 2026
• Third Round:  October 23th, 2026

Changes made since the last occasion

Last year was the first version of the course as "Requirements Engineering".   Previously, it had been "Requirements Engineering and User Experience".  From 2025 to 2026, exercise sessions are folded into the lectures to make more time for interactive lectures.   Otherwise, the course remains nearly the same.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

Knowledge and understanding

• Identify key RE concepts such as functional and non-functional requirements, stakeholders, assumptions, constraints, specifications, priority, and scenarios
• Understand quality characteristics of requirements
• Describe important differences between a variety of requirements modeling techniques
• Describe the benefits and drawbacks between specific elicitation techniques
• Explain the role of verification and validation in RE
• Identify key non-functional requirements for software, such as usability, security, safety, and sustainability.

Competence and skills

• Apply creativity techniques to generate requirements
• Apply concepts to write and evaluate requirements with high quality
• Capture requirements in different textual formats
• Draw several types of requirements models
• Link textual requirements to requirements as captured in models
• Use various techniques to prioritize requirements

Judgement and approach

• Evaluate and select between available elicitation techniques
• Evaluate the suitability of ideas generated via requirements creativity techniques
• Evaluate benefits and drawbacks of different requirements representations
• Evaluate the impact of RE projects on sustainability goals such as reduced inequalities or responsible production and consumption.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

https://www.chalmers.se/en/education/your-studies/find-course-and-programme-syllabi/course-syllabus/DAT357 / DIT047/?acYear=2026/2027

If the course is a joint course (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet) you should link to both syllabus (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet).

Plagiarism, Free-Riding, and AI Use

Plagiarism or free-riding is not allowed; cases of such will lead to grade adjustments and potentially failing assignments or the exam.   Although assignments are typically graded on a group level, grades are given individually and may vary per group member depending on performance and contribution.

See Gothenburg University Rules regarding plagiarism: https://studentportal.gu.se/en/your-studies/exams/cheating-and-plagiarism?i_da=1Links to an external site.

We follow the Generative AI policy as supported by the SEM program, see GenerativeAIPolicy.pdf.   Students are responsible to be able to understand and explain the contents of their assignments.  We reserve the right to hold an oral examination of assignment content and adjust grades.

Classroom Climate

All students are expected to behave as scholars at a leading institute of technology. This includes arriving on time, not talking during lecture (unless addressing the instructor or as part of a group discussion), and not causing disruption in the classroom. Disruptive students will be warned and dismissed from lectures, with multiple instances leading to potential consequences on your course grade.

Special Needs
It is university policy to provide, on a flexible and individual basis, reasonable accommodations to students that have conditions that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students are encouraged to contact their instructor early in the semester to discuss their individual needs for accommodations.

Diversity
Someday you will graduate, and in the real world, you will have to work with a wide variety of people. Now is the time to abandon preconceived prejudices about others. Students in this class are expected to respectfully work with all other students, regardless of gender, race, sexuality, religion, or any other criteria. There is a zero-tolerance policy for any student that discriminates against other students for any reason, including potential disciplinary action from the university, dismissal from the course, and a failing course grade.