RESUMEN

Terminological interference occurs in requirements engineering when stakeholders have different interpretations of the terms they use to describe their problem domain. In this article, the authors present a technique to detect terminological interference in the ways that stakeholders express nonfunctional requirements, represented as softgoals in goal-oriented requirements models. Their approach uses George Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique. By comparing the grids constructed by different stakeholders, they can highlight interferences and generate follow-up questions to resolve them. They demonstrate their approach in a pilot study for a nonprofit organization. Their study shows the technique can readily identify agreements and mismatches in stakeholders' terminologies and can be performed without preliminary training or specific resources. This article is part of a special issue on stakeholders in requirements engineering.