ABOUT

Requirements Engineering (RE) is the pivotal domain within Software Engineering that encompasses the discovery, documentation, and analysis of a system's purpose, grounded in stakeholder needs. As the rapid integration of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) reshapes the software development lifecycle, the paradigm is shifting from viewing AI as a standalone tool to fostering true Human-AI Collaboration. This year, we recognize that the future of RE lies in augmented intelligence, where human expertise and AI capabilities synergize to solve complex RE tasks, improve quality assessment, and streamline traceability.

In parallel with this highly automated era, it is increasingly crucial to ground software development deeply in Human Values. As AI-intensive systems become more pervasive, integrating considerations such as fairness, transparency, inclusivity, and sustainability directly into the RE process is no longer optional. QUATIC 2026 invites researchers and practitioners to explore how we can successfully orchestrate human-AI partnerships in the RE process, while ensuring that the requirements we specify are fundamentally aligned with core societal and ethical values.

KEY TOPICS

This year’s track aims to foster discussion on these key topics: 

Human-AI Collaboration in Requirements Engineering:

• Augmented RE and Co-Creation: Explore frameworks, tools, and methodologies where human practitioners and Large Language Models (LLMs) or other AI agents work collaboratively in RE activities, such as elicitation, interpretation, negotiation, documentation, and validation/verification.

• Trust, Explainability, and Validation: Address the challenges of verifying AI-generated artifacts. Investigate how human engineers can evaluate, interpret, and build trust in the outputs provided by AI assistants during the RE process.

• Prompt Engineering and Communication in RE: Investigate techniques, patterns, and best practices for stakeholders and requirements engineers interacting with conversational AI to effectively.

Human Values in Requirements Engineering:

• Value-Sensitive Design and Elicitation: Explore novel qualitative and quantitative approaches to identifying, capturing, and prioritizing human values—such as privacy, security, transparency, and well-being—early in the RE phase.

• Bias Mitigation and Fairness: Address the growing need for RE strategies that actively identify and prevent systemic biases in both traditional software and AI models, ensuring equitable outcomes for diverse user groups.

• Sustainability and Green RE: Define and integrate requirements that account for the environmental impact and long-term sustainability of software systems, aligning technological growth with ecological responsibility.

• Inclusivity and Accessibility: Delve into RE techniques that champion universal design, ensuring systems are inherently built to accommodate aging populations, individuals with disabilities, and diverse cultural contexts.

The Intersection: Aligning AI Systems with Human Values

• RE for Value-Aligned AI: Devise RE strategies and specification methods specifically tailored to ensure that AI-based systems operate reliably, safely, and in strict adherence to ethical standards and societal norms.

ADDITIONAL TOPICS

Additional topics of interest belong to the whole RE realm and are:

• Requirements engineering in relation to quality requirements 

• Requirements elicitation, analysis and documentation

• Requirements verification and validation

• Requirements management: evolution, traceability, prioritization, and negotiation

• Requirements for particular application domains

• Strategies, methods and processes for assuring the quality of requirements

• Alignment of requirements to information need/business goals and processes

• Risk management in the context of RE 

• Requirements-based project management and cost estimation

• Human, social, cultural, and cognitive factors in RE

• Regulatory compliance to functional and non-functional requirements

• Contemporary RE processes and tools for quality requirements

TRACK COMMITTEE

Chairs:  Oliver Karras (TIB - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, Germany), Giovanna Broccia (ISTI/CNR, Italy)

Program Committee: 

• TBA