Handbook on Natural Language Processing for Requirements Engineering

This handbook provides a comprehensive guide on how natural language processing (NLP) can be leveraged to enhance various aspects of requirements engineering (RE), leading the reader from the exploration of fundamental concepts and techniques to the practical implementation of NLP for RE solutions in real-world scenarios.

The book features contributions from researchers with both academic and industrial experience. It is organized into three parts, each focusing on different aspects of applying NLP to RE: Part I – NLP for Downstream RE Tasks delves into the application of NLP techniques to tasks that are typically part of the RE process. It includes chapters on NLP for requirements classification, requirements similarity and retrieval, requirements traceability, defect detection, and automated terminology and relations extraction. Next, Part II – NLP for Specialised Types of Requirements and Artefacts explores how NLP can be tailored to handle specific requirement types and artefacts. The chapters cover legal requirements processing, privacy requirements acquisition and analysis, user feedback intelligence, mining issue trackers, and analysis of user story requirements. Eventually, Part III – NLP for RE in Practice addresses practical applications and tools for implementing NLP in RE. It includes a chapter on the different tools that use NLP techniques for RE tasks, followed by chapters on empirical evaluation of tools, practical guidelines for selecting and evaluating NLP techniques, guidelines on using large language models (LLMs) in RE, and dealing with data challenges in RE.

The book is designed for a diverse audience, including Ph.D. students, researchers, and practitioners. Ph.D. students can benefit from a comprehensive guide to the topic of NLP for RE and acquire the essential background for their studies. Researchers can identify further triggers for scientific exploration, based on the currently settled knowledge in the field. Eventually, practitioners facing challenges with NL requirements can find practical insights to enhance their RE processes using NLP.

Alessio Ferrari is Research Scientist at Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Informazione “A. Faedo” (CNR-ISTI), Italy. His main research interests are the application of NLP technologies to RE, with a focus on detection of ambiguity and communication defects in requirements documents and requirements elicitation interviews; and software process improvement for safety-critical systems, with a focus on formal/semi-formal model-based development and code generation. He is the co-author of more than 100 publications in international conferences and journals, and is one the founders of the NLP4RE workshop, has been PC Co-Chair of the REFSQ 2023 conference, and will be PC Co-Chair of the IEEE RE 2025 conference.

Gouri Ginde (Deshpande) is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Software Engineering. Gouri spent a decade in the IT industry working at Hewlett Packard Enterprises and Hewlett Packard Lab (Bangalore, India), where she held various roles, including Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer, before embarking on her academic journey. At the University of Calgary, Gouri is the Scientific Director of the Software Hub for AnalytiKs, Technology and Innovation (SHAKTI) Laboratory.  The vision of her research lab is to solve software-centric problems. She specializes in software requirements engineering, software engineering for machine learning, and applied data science in healthcare. She has been PC co-chair of the NLP4RE'22 workshop and provided a tutorial on NLP at the IEEE RE'22 conference.