Using six thinking hats method as creativity trigger for requirements elicitation: A study with elicitation workshop and large language models

Requirement elicitation is a critical phase in the software development lifecycle, where effective communication and collaboration among stakeholders are essential for generating high-quality and creative requirements that align closely with user needs and project goals. A major challenge arises because stakeholders frequently struggle to clearly express their needs. This difficulty is increased when stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds, leading to communication barriers that hinder co-creation. Utilizing the Six Thinking Hats method is a beneficial approach to address stakeholder communication and collaboration. This work presents our experience conducting requirement elicitation workshops using the Six Thinking Hats method, highlighting the challenges faced and offering insights. Furthermore, we investigate applying the Six Thinking Hat method with LLMs for the requirement elicitation process by using various models and employing different prompting techniques and architectures. Our methods suggest a systematic and repeatable approach to applying the Six Thinking Hats technique in the requirements elicitation process. Our results indicate that LLMs can be used for six thinking hat requirements elicitation, as they generate creative and relevant requirements, highlight diverse perspectives, and help analysts identify gaps that may missed by stakeholders.