On confusion between requirements and their representations

Requirements representations are often confused with requirements. This confusion is not just widespread in practice, but it exists even in the latest requirements engineering research and theory, leading to a number of negative consequences. In this article, we discuss these negative consequences, and present a solution based on a strict distinction between requirements per se and requirements representations. We elaborate on this distinction and classify different forms of representations in a unified requirements representations ontology, including a refinement of descriptive and model-based requirements representations.