Validate requirement multiplicity as an elicitation trigger

Investigate whether a user turn containing multiple requirement units can reliably serve as a signal for a coding agent to initiate elicitation in real coding-agent sessions.

Background

The study finds that requirement multiplicity explains differences in rework more readily than operation type. This suggests that the number of requirement units in a user turn might be useful for deciding when an agent should pause implementation and request clarification or structured elicitation. The practical usefulness of this signal has not yet been established in real sessions.

References

Finally, RQ3 finds that requirement multiplicity explains rework differences more readily than operation type, but the practical utility of multiplicity as a predictor has not been tested: whether a user turn carrying multiple requirement units can serve as a signal for the agent to initiate elicitation remains to be verified in real sessions.

— Requirements After the First Edit: Mining Late Requirement Emergence and Rework in Real-World Coding-Agent Sessions  (2609.03028 - Jiang et al., 2 Sep 2026) in Section 6.5, Future Work