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Requirements engineering for sustainability: an awareness framework for designing software systems for a better tomorrow

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Abstract

Integrating novel software systems in our society, economy and environment can have far-reaching effects. As a result, software systems should be designed in such a way as to maintain or improve the sustainability of their intended socio-technical systems. However, a paradigm shift is required to raise awareness of software professionals on the potential sustainability effects of software systems. While Requirements Engineering is considered the key for driving this change, requirements engineers lack the knowledge, experience and methodological support for acting as facilitators for a broader discussion on sustainability effects. This paper presents a question-based framework for raising awareness of the potential effects of software systems on sustainability, as the first step towards enabling the required paradigm shift. An evaluation study of the framework was conducted with four groups of computer science students. The results of the study indicate that the framework is applicable to different types of systems and helps to facilitate discussions about the potential effects that software systems could have on sustainability.

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Notes

  1. As an awareness framework, the detailed analysis of potential effects is currently outside of the scope of the framework.

  2. When first introduced the framework, practitioners often ask whether the framework can be applied to a system whose purpose is not related to sustainability. Hence, we decided to add this RQ.

  3. Therefore, they interviewed at least five stakeholders and we generally expected that each dimension would be represented by a different stakeholder.

  4. While these metrics can give us an indication of whether the students could use the framework, a mapping to a five-point scale (as used to answer the remaining RQs) would be unreliable. Hence, we chose a simpler scale.

  5. The binary responses (b.4 and b.7 in Table 8) were not used for RQ analysis directly, as they are only qualifying questions for answers to b.5 and b.8, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

Each named author made a significant contribution in terms of ideas, discussions, evolution and physical writing to be named on the paper. All authors participated in the design and development of the framework applied in the study. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Christoph Becker for insights that led us to change the focus from an analytic to an awareness framework and Ms. Nanae Aubry for helping with part of the coding of the feedback forms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. La Salle, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain

    Leticia Duboc

  2. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Birgit Penzenstadler

  3. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Birgit Penzenstadler

  4. Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Jari Porras

  5. Vector Institute, Toronto, Canada

    Sedef Akinli Kocak

  6. Hochschule Furtwangen University, Furtwangen, Germany

    Stefanie Betz

  7. University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Ruzanna Chitchyan

  8. Linköpings Universitet, Linköping, Sweden

    Ola Leifler

  9. FHNW, Windisch, Switzerland

    Norbert Seyff

  10. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Norbert Seyff

  11. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Colin C. Venters

Authors
  1. Leticia Duboc
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  2. Birgit Penzenstadler
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  3. Jari Porras
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  4. Sedef Akinli Kocak
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  5. Stefanie Betz
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  7. Ola Leifler
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  8. Norbert Seyff
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  9. Colin C. Venters
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Correspondence to Colin C. Venters.

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The authors would like to acknowledge EPSRC Grant EP/R007373/1, Digitaldialog 21 funded by the Ministry for Science, Research and Art Baden-Württemberg, the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (grant 2017 SGR 966), and the funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 712949 (TECNIOspring PLUS) and from the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia.

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Duboc, L., Penzenstadler, B., Porras, J. et al. Requirements engineering for sustainability: an awareness framework for designing software systems for a better tomorrow. Requirements Eng 25, 469–492 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-020-00336-y

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