Requirements engineering in open innovation: a research agenda

TL;DR

This paper explores how Requirements Engineering must adapt to open innovation environments, proposing a research agenda and framework to manage diverse stakeholders and complex requirements in open settings.

Contribution

It advances a framework for open innovation RE, focusing on stakeholder management, timing of openness, and prioritization, and provides a structured research agenda.

Findings

Contrasts open source RE with recent OI findings

Proposes a framing-model for research questions in OI RE

Synthesizes current understanding to guide future research

Abstract

In recent years Open Innovation (OI) has gained much attention and made firms aware that they need to consider the open environment surrounding them. To facilitate this shift Requirements Engineering (RE) needs to be adapted in order to manage the increase and complexity of new requirements sources as well as networks of stakeholders. In response we build on and advance an earlier proposed software engineering framework for fostering OI, focusing on stakeholder management, when to open up, and prioritization and release planning. Literature in open source RE is contrasted against recent findings of OI in software engineering to establish a current view of the area. Based on the synthesized findings we propose a research agenda within the areas under focus, along with a framing-model to help researchers frame and break down their research questions to consider the different angles implied by the OI model.