Context: Advances in technical debt research demonstrate the benefits of applying the financial debt metaphor to support decision-making in software development activities. Although decision-making during requirements engineering has significant consequences, the debt metaphor in requirements engineering is inadequately explored. Objective: We aim to conceptualize how the debt metaphor applies to requirements engineering by organizing concepts related to practitioners' understanding and managing of requirements engineering debt (RED). Method: We conducted two in-depth expert interviews to identify key requirements engineering debt concepts and construct a survey instrument. We surveyed 69 practitioners worldwide regarding their perception of the concepts and developed an initial analytical theory. Results: We propose a RED theory that aligns key concepts from technical debt research but emphasizes the specific nature of requirements engineering. In particular, the theory consists of 23 falsifiable propositions derived from the literature, the interviews, and survey results. Conclusions: The concepts of requirements engineering debt are perceived to be similar to their technical debt counterpart. Nevertheless, measuring and tracking requirements engineering debt are immature in practice. Our proposed theory serves as the first guide toward further research in this area.

翻译：摘要：背景：技术债务研究的进展表明，将财务债务隐喻应用于软件开发生命周期中的决策制定具有显著优势。尽管需求工程中的决策会产生深远影响，但债务隐喻在这一领域尚未得到充分探索。目标：我们旨在通过组织与从业者理解和实践管理需求工程债务（RED）相关的概念，概念化债务隐喻如何应用于需求工程。方法：我们进行了两次深入的专家访谈，以识别关键的需求工程债务概念并构建调查工具。我们对全球69位从业者进行了关于这些概念认知的问卷调查，并开发了一项初步分析理论。结果：我们提出了一个RED理论，该理论在强调需求工程特有性质的同时，与技术债务研究中的关键概念保持一致。具体而言，该理论包含来自文献、访谈和问卷调查结果的23个可证伪命题。结论：需求工程债务的概念被认为与相应的技术债务概念相似。然而，在实践中，需求工程债务的测量和追踪尚不成熟。我们提出的理论为这一领域的进一步研究提供了初步指导。