  Context. Requirements engineering remains a discipline that is faced with a
large number of challenges, including the implementation of a requirements
elicitation process in industry. Although several proposals have been suggested
by researchers and academics, little is known of the practices that are
actually followed in industry. Objective. We investigate the SoTA with respect
to requirements elicitation, examining practitioners' practices. We focus on
the techniques, the roles involved, and the challenges associated to the
process. Method. We conducted an interview-based survey study involving 24
practitioners from 12 different Swedish IT companies. Results. We found that
group interaction techniques, including meetings and workshops, are the most
popular type of elicitation techniques that are employed by the practitioners,
except in the case of small projects. We noted that customers are frequently
involved in the elicitation process, except in the case of market-driven
organizations. Technical staff (for example, developers and architects) are
more frequently involved in the elicitation process compared to the involvement
of business- or strategic staff. Finally, we identified a number of challenges
with respect to stakeholders. These challenges include difficulties in
understanding and prioritizing their needs. Further, it was noted that
requirements instability (i.e., caused by changing needs or priorities) was a
predominant challenge. These observations need to be interpreted in the context
of the study. Conclusion. The relevant observations regarding the survey
participants' experiences should be of interest to the industry; experiences
that should be analyzed in the practitioners' context. Researchers may find
evidence for the use of academic results in practice, thereby inspiring future
theoretical work, as well as further empirical studies in the same area.
