Requirements Engineering for Research Software: A Vision

TL;DR

This paper highlights the need for specialized Requirements Engineering approaches for research software, based on an exploratory study of researchers' practices and challenges in eliciting, documenting, and analyzing software requirements.

Contribution

It characterizes research software as a new domain requiring tailored Requirements Engineering methods and presents a vision for improving software development processes in scientific research.

Findings

Researchers often develop software ad hoc without formal processes.

Researchers face specific challenges in requirements elicitation and documentation.

A vision for Requirements Engineering tailored to research software is proposed.

Abstract

Modern science is relying on software more than ever. The behavior and outcomes of this software shape the scientific and public discourse on important topics like climate change, economic growth, or the spread of infections. Most researchers creating software for scientific purposes are not trained in Software Engineering. As a consequence, research software is often developed ad hoc without following stringent processes. With this paper, we want to characterize research software as a new application domain that needs attention from the Requirements Engineering community. We conducted an exploratory study based on 8 interviews with 12 researchers who develop software. We describe how researchers elicit, document, and analyze requirements for research software and what processes they follow. From this, we derive specific challenges and describe a vision of Requirements Engineering for research software.