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People’s Capabilities are a Blind Spot in RE Research and Practice

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Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 9619))

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Abstract

[Context and motivation] Requirements engineering (RE) has a history of nearly 40 years and has developed several methods, techniques, and tools to support RE activities in various project situations. [Question/problem] This paper argues that RE research and practice is people agnostic and therefore has a blind spot: it ignores the capabilities of the people involved in RE. [Principal ideas/results] This paper presents several arguments from the related work that show that people’s capabilities may have a significant impact on their performance of RE related activities. [Contribution] Based on the presented arguments, this paper formulates the hypothesis that people’s capabilities have a higher impact on RE performance than the project situation and the methods applied. Based on this hypothesis, this paper presents possible further research activities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This experiment has become known as the monkey business illusion and is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. adesso AG, Stockholmer Allee 20, 44269, Dortmund, Germany

    Kim Lauenroth

  2. University of Applied Science and Arts Dortmund, Emil-Figge-Strasse 42, 44227, Dortmund, Germany

    Erik Kamsties

Authors
  1. Kim Lauenroth
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  2. Erik Kamsties
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Correspondence to Kim Lauenroth .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Maya Daneva

  2. Universidad Politècnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Oscar Pastor

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Lauenroth, K., Kamsties, E. (2016). People’s Capabilities are a Blind Spot in RE Research and Practice. In: Daneva, M., Pastor, O. (eds) Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. REFSQ 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9619. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30282-9_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30282-9_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30281-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30282-9

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