Software Professionals' Attitudes towards Video as a Medium in Requirements Engineering

TL;DR

This study explores software professionals' positive attitudes towards using videos in requirements engineering, highlighting their potential benefits and challenges, and emphasizing the need for guidance to effectively leverage videos in RE practices.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into software professionals' perceptions of video as a communication medium in RE, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Findings

Overall positive attitude towards video in RE

Perceived potential to improve requirements engineering

Concerns about threats and challenges of using videos

Abstract

In requirements engineering (RE), knowledge is mainly communicated via written specifications. This practice is cumbersome due to its low communication richness and effectiveness. In contrast, videos can transfer knowledge more richly and effectively. However, video is still a neglected medium in RE. We investigate if software professionals perceive video as a medium that can contribute to RE. We focus on their attitudes towards video as a medium in RE including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We conducted a survey to explore these attitudes with a questionnaire. 64 out of 106 software professionals completed the survey. The respondents' overall attitude towards video is positive. 59 of them stated that video has the potential to improve RE. However, 34 respondents also mentioned threats of videos for RE. We identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of videos for RE from the point of view of software professionals. Video is a medium with a neglected potential. Software professionals do not fundamentally reject videos in RE. Despite the strengths and opportunities of video, the stated weaknesses and threats impede its application. Based on our findings, we conclude that software professionals need guidance on how to produce and use videos for visual communication to take full advantage of the currently neglected potential.