Crowd-Centric Requirements Engineering

Abstract

Requirements Engineering (RE) is an essential process in the continuous development of software products. User involvement has a large potential for improving the quality of RE and thereby the quality of software. Shortcomings of current RE methods and threats in the complex environment of Software Product Organizations (SPO) trigger the need for an innovative method. Crowdsourcing and gamification are two emerging trends that provide opportunities to overcome the shortcomings and threats. In this thesis, the Crowd-Centric Requirements Engineering (CCRE) method, which guides SPOs in involving all stakeholders in the RE process, is described. A prototype, Refine, is built to demonstrate the method. Although some obstacles to large-scale adoption exist, the evaluation of this demonstration shows that CCRE can provide a useful process, useful requirements, engaged stakeholders and valuable interaction among those stakeholders. Through these aspects, the method has shown potential to improve requirements engineering in software production.