Requirements Engineering in Practice – Agile, Accessible, and from the T3DD25 Community
Our CEO, Fabian Stein, and my colleague Dex addressed the topic of requirements engineering in practice at T3DD25 and received a “Best Speaker Award” for their presentation. You can read more about what happens when theory and practice come together here.
Wer nichts wagt, kann auch nichts gewinnen!
Marco Schiffmann
packt jede Gelegenheiten am Schopf und scheut sich nicht vor neuen Herausforderungen
There are those moments at conferences when you can tell right away: These are people who know what they’re talking about—and who aren’t too proud to laugh at their own shortcomings. That’s exactly how the presentation by Fabian (Product Owner & CEO) and Dex (Architect & Developer) began at the TYPO3 Developer Days 2025 — T3DD25 for short.
“Welcome to our little self-help group for requirements management!” Fabian greeted the audience—and it was immediately clear: This wasn’t going to be a dogmatic presentation on processes or a collection of one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead: real-world requirements engineering, plenty of lessons learned from agile practice, and an honest look behind the scenes of our Scrum teams.
Conflicts, but also opportunities
Why Requirements Engineering So Often Rubs People the Wrong Way
Fabian and Dex have been working together for over 14 years—and have been friends for 16 years. This long-standing collaboration also shapes their perspective on agile requirements engineering. For them, it’s not simply a step in the process between concept and implementation. It’s about building relationships, communication—and sometimes even conflict resolution.
Right from the start, they made it clear why this topic is so important: requirements are often the biggest source of friction between project management and development. In the agile world, especially in Scrum, this friction can quickly become apparent—and that’s not only exhausting but also an opportunity for better collaboration.
One key image from the presentation stuck with me: the “real” project management triangle. Officially, it’s about time, budget, and quality. In the reality of their development team, however, it’s more like time, money, and nerves. After all, you can often deliver good quality even under pressure—but not indefinitely, without it taking a toll on morale and motivation.
From Theory to Agile Practice
Then there’s the political side of things: requirements are rarely purely technical. The client wants a good product; the product owner wants satisfied customers and efficient processes; the dev team wants cool technical solutions; and the agency is focused on cost-effectiveness. All of this is packed into a single ticket—and often you don’t even realize that you’re not actually talking about the same things. Only when all interests are laid out on the table can a meaningful compromise be reached.
Fabian and Dex shared how they themselves followed this path. In their “Bembel” project—the launch of their Frankfurt office—they were convinced: We know each other well, so communication is already working. It wasn’t. The result: misunderstandings, duplication of effort, frustration.
Step by step, they built a structure that works both within the Scrum process and in day-to-day operations: a shared ticket template in Jira, regular RE meetings, and a clear separation between refinement (in small, focused groups) and estimation (with the entire team). This not only led to better results but also fostered a greater sense of responsibility among individuals. Particularly valuable: When an expert works with someone who isn’t yet familiar with the topic, it often sparks exactly the kinds of questions that move a project forward.
Just Do It
Agile also means: pragmatism over dogma
Despite all the structure, they remained realistic: Not every requirement has to go through the entire requirements engineering process. Sometimes it’s more efficient to just get started. “If it takes me four hours to prepare a ticket that will be implemented in an hour, I’ve probably gone overboard,” Dex remarked dryly.
In the end, they summarized their approach: Talk to each other early on. Share responsibility instead of passing it on. Create clarity instead of making assumptions. Communicate directly—even across roles. And don’t forget: Humor helps.
The goal of their talk wasn’t to sell a single “perfect” process. It was to show that agile requirements engineering is a dynamic interplay of people, processes, and framework conditions. It will never run perfectly—but with openness, structure, and a dose of composure, we can achieve great things together.
And it clearly went over well: With this talk, Fabian and Dex took second place in the Best Speaker Award at T3DD25 —and we’re thrilled about this recognition from the community.
Some funny Reels
Thank you very much
We’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you: We used a few Reels from our colleagues at tl;dv to illustrate our points. Thanks to their easygoing collaboration and direct support, we were able to liven up our presentation and get a few laughs from the audience. Thank you very much, and feel free to check out their Instagram channel. (https://www.instagram.com/tldv.io/?hl=de)
Interested in exploring the topic of requirements engineering with us?
If you weren’t able to attend T3DD25 or missed the talk, but are familiar with the challenges of requirements engineering —let’s talk. We’re happy to share our experiences from agile Scrum projects, help you optimize your processes, and support you in achieving better results for your team and your customers.
We’re passionate about open-source software. For us, this also includes ensuring that systems can communicate with one another—even with proprietary solutions. We view consulting as comprehensive support for your software projects. Depending on the project, this may include, among other things:Agile methods such as Scrum, sprints, and short innovation cyclesAnalysis of your market environment and evaluation of solutions in practiceIntelligent integration of various systems (web applications, smartphone/tablet apps, ERP, SAP, etc.)Automated testing and quality assuranceInfrastructure concepts for software projects, with or without the use of our own data centerIt is particularly important to us to keep our work efficient. This means we always focus on the individual project and do only what truly makes sense. Of course, we are always available and practice agile work: We can adapt our approach at any time while always ensuring transparency.
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