u/Wild_Barber_5807

I'm doing a benchmarking study on SYS.1 requirements elicitation practices. The frustrating thing: three metrics that are referenced in ASPICE and systems engineering literature have no published benchmark values anywhere. No IEEE paper, no industry report, nothing. So I'm trying to collect primary data directly from practitioners.

The three metrics - phrased as simply as possible:

How much does one customer requirement expand?

If a customer says "the vehicle must detect obstacles" and your team writes 12 engineering requirements to cover that, the number is 12. What's typical on your projects? (Your company might call this decomposition ratio, elaboration factor, RER, or something else.)

How fast does your team work through requirements?

Across the full requirements phase - elicitation, documentation, reviews, negotiation, baselining - roughly how many customer requirements does one engineer finalise per working day?

How stable are requirements after sign-off?

Out of every 100 requirements that get formally agreed and baselined, how many get changed during the rest of the project?

Context that might affect your answer: ASPICE capability level, domain (automotive, aerospace, defence, medical devices), project type (new platform vs derivative).

I'm not fishing for exact numbers - rough estimates from experience are completely valid and will be labelled as such. Even a "we don't track this but it feels like X" is useful.

If you're willing to share a few numbers in the comments, brilliant. If you'd prefer a more structured format, I have a 10-question form that takes about 5 minutes - DM me and I'll send it over.

Findings will be shared back with anyone who contributes, anonymised and aggregated.

TL;DR — No published benchmark exists for requirements elaboration ratio, elicitation throughput, or post-baseline change rate in automotive/embedded/safety-critical domains. Collecting primary data directly from practitioners. Three numbers in the comments is all I need

Working on a benchmarking study, and hit a wall - three numbers that should exist in the literature simply don't. No published paper or industry report gives actual values for these. So I'm coming directly to practitioners.

The three things I'm trying to benchmark across automotive and embedded companies:

1. Expansion ratio - when a customer gives you one requirement, how many engineering/system requirements does your team typically write to cover it? (Some companies call this decomposition ratio, elaboration factor, or something else entirely - whatever your team calls it is fine.)

2. Throughput - roughly how many customer requirements can one engineer fully process per day during the requirements phase - including all the meetings, reviews, back-and-forth, and sign-offs?

3. Post-sign-off change rate - out of every 100 requirements that get formally signed off, how many end up being changed, added, or removed later in the project?

Even a rough ballpark helps. I'm not looking for exact figures - estimates based on your experience are just as useful, and I'd note them as such in the analysis.

If you're working in automotive embedded (ADAS, powertrain, body electronics, infotainment) or any safety-critical embedded domain, your experience is exactly what I need.

Drop a comment, or if you'd prefer, I can DM you a short form (10 questions, 5 minutes) that you can fill. Fully confidential - no name or company appears in any output.

Happy to share the aggregated findings with anyone who contributes once I have enough responses.

TL;DR - Trying to find real-world numbers for three things no published research covers: (1) how many engineering requirements your team writes per customer requirement, (2) how many requirements one engineer finalises per day, and (3) what percentage get changed after sign-off.