Challenges of Requirements Communication and Digital Assets Verification in Infrastructure Projects
Waleed Abdeen, Krzysztof Wnuk, Michael Unterkalmsteiner, Alexandros Chirtoglou
TL;DR
This study investigates the challenges of requirements communication and digital asset verification in large-scale infrastructure projects. Using two design-build cases from road and rail, it identifies 13 interlinked challenges across requirements validation, communication, and BIM/digital asset verification, and maps these to potential solutions from software engineering and systems engineering literature. The findings reveal notable parallels between software and infrastructure contexts, including traceability gaps, misinterpretation, and tool integration issues, underscoring the need for cross-domain methods such as risk analysis, knowledge organization, and NLP-based support. The work highlights practical interventions (e.g., auxiliary tracing artifacts, glossaries, iterative negotiation, and NLP4RE) and outlines directions for future research to improve early conflict detection, efficient communication, and end-to-end verification in infrastructure programs.
Abstract
Background: Poor communication of requirements between clients and suppliers contributes to project overruns,in both software and infrastructure projects. Existing literature offers limited insights into the communication challenges at this interface. Aim: Our research aim to explore the processes and associated challenges with requirements activities that include client-supplier interaction and communication. Method: we study requirements validation, communication, and digital asset verification processes through two case studies in the road and railway sectors, involving interviews with ten experts across three companies. Results: We identify 13 challenges, along with their causes and consequences, and suggest solution areas from existing literature. Conclusion: Interestingly, the challenges in infrastructure projects mirror those found in software engineering, highlighting a need for further research to validate potential solutions.