Designing the Automated Greenhouse - Matching Requirements and Architecture for Startup Product Specification Using Epic Stories

Abstract

Within the requirements engineering domain, user stories have become a commonly used lightweight approach to document requirements. However, critics highlight the limitations of user stories. To overcome these shortcomings, epic stories and Jobs-to-be-Done were developed. This study investigates if epic stories can be used to specify the functional software architecture of a startup by applying the Requirements Engineering for Software Architecture (RE4SA) method. A case study is conducted to test the RE4SA method at the Dutch startup Aruku B.V. by documenting requirements and creating a functional software architecture. The results are used to analyse the limitations of RE4SA and its potential as a tool for software specification.