A history of the international requirements engineering conference (RE)RE@21

This paper traces the history of the International Requirements Engineering Conference from its beginnings as the International Symposium on Requirements Engineering and the International Conference on Requirements Engineering. The history is tracked to the present, with suggestions for future considerations, such as more emphasis on systems requirements engineering, and enhanced practitioner participation. Other requirements engineering events and activities are also discussed. A timeline of major milestones is included, along with a brief discussion of requirements engineering research activities that occurred in parallel with the conference.

1. In the Beginning

In the early 1990s it was recognized that requirements engineering was becoming a distinct professional discipline. The initial idea for a requirements engineering conference occurred within the software engineering community: two informal groups of software engineering luminaries recognized the importance of requirements engineering and independently conceived the idea of a requirements engineering conference. Each applied to IEEE for sponsorship and received it. The groups quickly recognized that two conferences on requirements engineering held in the same year would not be feasible. In addition to the logistics of running two conferences, IEEE would not want to sponsor two annual conferences on the same topic with the same target audience, so it was decided that the conferences would be held in alternate years, retaining their individual identity.