The Potential of Citizen Platforms for Requirements Engineering of Large Socio-Technical Software Systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how participatory citizen platforms can be integrated into requirements engineering for large socio-technical software systems, highlighting potential benefits, challenges, and future research directions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of connecting citizen platforms with requirements engineering, addressing a gap in research and proposing a foundation for future pilot studies in public sector software systems.

Findings

Discusses advantages of citizen platforms in requirements gathering

Identifies potential challenges and disadvantages

Lays groundwork for future pilot studies in software engineering

Abstract

Participatory citizen platforms are innovative solutions to digitally better engage citizens in policy-making and deliberative democracy in general. Although these platforms have been used also in an engineering context, thus far, there is no existing work for connecting the platforms to requirements engineering. The present paper fills this notable gap. In addition to discussing the platforms in conjunction with requirements engineering, the paper elaborates potential advantages and disadvantages, thus paving the way for a future pilot study in a software engineering context. With these engineering tenets, the paper also contributes to the research of large socio-technical software systems in a public sector context, including their implementation and governance.