Stakeholder identification in the requirements engineering process

Adequate, timely and effective consultation of relevant stakeholders is of paramount importance in the requirements engineering process. However, the thorny issue of making sure that all relevant stakeholders are consulted has received less attention than other areas which depend on it, such as scenario-based requirements, involving users in development, negotiating between different viewpoints and so on. The literature suggests examples of stakeholders, and categories of stakeholder, but does not provide help in identifying stakeholders for a specific system. In this paper, we discuss current work in stakeholder identification, propose an approach to identifying relevant stakeholders for a specific system, and propose future directions for the work

Requirements specifications and recovered architectures as grounded theories

This paper describes the classic grounded theory (GT) process as a method to discover GTs to be subjected to later empirical validation. The paper shows that a well conducted instance of requirements engineering or of architecture recovery resembles an instance of the GT process for the purpose of discovering the requirements specification or recovered architecture artifact that the requirements engineering or architecture recovery produces. Therefore, this artifact resembles a GT

Thematic review and analysis of grounded theory application in software engineering

We present metacodes, a new concept to guide grounded theory (GT) research in software engineering. Metacodes are high level codes that can help software engineering researchers guide the data coding process. Metacodes are constructed in the course of analyzing software engineering papers that use grounded theory as a research methodology. We performed a high level analysis to discover common themes in such papers and discovered that GT had been applied primarily in three software engineering disciplines: agile development processes, geographically distributed software development, and requirements engineering. For each category, we collected and analyzed all grounded theory codes and created, following a GT analysis process, what we call metacodes that can be used to drive further theory building. This paper surveys the use of grounded theory in software engineering and presents an overview of successes and challenges of applying this research methodology

Requirements and Design of a Platform for Internet- and Mobile-based Interventions

Mental health and the therapeutic care of patients is a topic that is applied daily. Whether mental or physical health, usually everyone can complain about something. Due to digitalisation, the topic of mental health must also be raised to a higher level. The eSano system represents a platform that explicitly deals with the concept of e-health in order to provide online support for therapeutic care. The online therapy is provided via so-called Internet- and Mobile-based interventions (IMIs), which are carried out by the patients. The basic principle is that an eCoach accompanies the patient through guided interventions, but the patient also has the possibility to carry out an unguided intervention in a self-guiding manner. As a result of the possibility to perform the interventions on the mobile phone at any time, the use is very flexible, independent of location and can be easily integrated into everyday life. In addition to an application for patients and therapists, there is also a platform for intervention creation and editing, which is the beginning of the development of IMIs for psychological support. In this bachelor thesis the requirements and the conceptual design of the eSano platform are identified and presented. The functional and non-functional requirements to be realized in the final system form the basis of the design concept. Starting with the basic architecture of the platform, creating and participating in interventions and the implementation of individual modules of the therapy, this thesis presents the connection and communication between the systems and roles involved. Furthermore, aspects such as distribution of rights, privacy and security are addressed and basically defined. Due to the realization of a requirements engineering process of the complete eSano system, the results of this thesis form a good basis for any further work with the project

Strategies to enhance small-scale commercial tree-growing inside state forests in Indonesia

Wood supply shortages are evident in Indonesia's forestry sector in both high-value products, and commodity products, such as pulpwood. Small-scale tree-growing can fill some of these gaps, while enhancing local livelihoods. Focussing on degraded forest area, much of the potential land on which small-scale commercial tree growing can take place is inside state forests. Two current schemes in this context are the community forestry (Hutan Kemasyarakatan) and community-company partnership (Kemitraan) schemes. This research seeks to inform policies to enhance the implementation of small-scale commercial tree growing inside state forests by addressing four research questions: 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two current schemes? 2. What are the benefits and costs, in both social and economic terms, of the two existing schemes in comparison to other investment options using the same lands? 3. How does this analysis suggest policies and schemes to promote small-scale commercial tree-growing in Indonesia should be designed? 4. How does this information and analysis inform decision makers on the potential contribution of timber from small-scale commercial tree growing to the wood production strategies in Indonesia? Questions 1 to 3 were addressed by analysing case studies relating to community tree-growing in the Sumbawa and Bima Districts (West Nusa Tenggara), and to the community-company partnership in Jambi (Sumatra) and Sanggau (West Kalimantan). Question 4 was addressed through a desktop analysis of demand and supply data and projections. Both schemes were developed initially to reinforce the status of state property suffering from encroachment and illegal logging. Despite their effectiveness in containing these pressures, the active involvement of the community under the two schemes remains a last option for communities, in part because of actual and transaction costs. Developing tree-growing inside state forests is complicated in comparison to tree-growing that is more commonly developed on privately-owned land. The commercial viability of these schemes has generally been unconvincing, and financial analyses suggest the conditions in which these schemes are likely to be sustainable. Social capital from the collaborative arrangements under the two schemes has allowed community access to state forests and to benefits from timber plantations, as well as a way to generate other capitals required. Wider implementation of the schemes is hampered by inconsistencies between policies and regulations in force at the national and district levels. The national policy is more important to partnership schemes, since it provides secure access and flexible management opportunities, whilst the regional autonomy exercised by the district government has provided advantages for community tree-growing. Increasing the competitiveness of returns from tree growing compared to other investment alternatives should be achieved by increasing timber productivity to the optimum level. Analysis at the national level suggests that there is a large and continuing gap between industry capacity and wood supply from Indonesia's forests. Scenario analysis suggests that the different smallholder tree-growing schemes can contribute a wood supply that is many orders of magnitude greater than the industry requirements

A Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) data warehouse as a resource for improving the quality of dementia care. Exploring requirements for secondary use of DCM data using a user-driven approach and discussing their implications for a data warehouse

The secondary use of Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) data, if that data were held in a data warehouse, could contribute to global efforts in monitoring and improving dementia care quality. This qualitative study identifies requirements for the secondary use of DCM data within a data warehouse using a user-driven approach. The thesis critically analyses various technical methodologies and then argues the use and further demonstrates the applicability of a modified grounded theory as a user-driven methodology for a data warehouse. Interviews were conducted with 29 DCM researchers, trainers and practitioners in three phases. 19 interviews were face to face with the others on Skype and telephone with an average length of individual interview 45-60 minutes. The interview data was systematically analysed using open, axial and selective coding techniques and constant comparison methods. The study data highlighted benchmarking, mappers’ support and research as three perceived potential secondary uses of DCM data within a data warehouse. DCM researchers identified concerns regarding the quality and security of DCM data for secondary uses, which led to identifying the requirements for additional provenance, ethical and contextual data to be included in a warehouse alongside DCM data to meet requirements for secondary uses of this data for research. The study data was also used to extrapolate three main factors such as an individual mapper, the organization and an electronic data management that can influence the quality and availability of DCM data for secondary uses. The study makes further recommendations for designing a future DCM data warehouse

Corporate market responsibility for orderly financial markets: systemic risk and regulation following Citigroup, sovereign funds, and the credit crunch

How are companies responsible for helping to ensure orderly financial markets? In economic theory, the question is redundant, because orderly markets result from normal business activity, with support from regulators. Within the last few years, however, several episodes have suggested differently. Citigroup investment bank was fined for destabilising bond markets, despite being absolved of criminal conduct. Sovereign wealth funds were compelled to sign a code-of-conduct, to safeguard "free and open markets", despite having brought economic benefits globally. The US and UK governments described the most profitable financial decade in generations as an "age of irresponsibility", after it led to a crisis. These three episodes are the empirical focus of this thesis. The thesis develops a grounded theory of corporate market responsibility (CMR)- an expectation by regulators and other actors that firms will help to regulate systemic risk in financial markets through discretionary activities that supplement regulatory requirements. This expectation explains the controversies, and may help us to anticipate and understand similar episodes in future. Further, it is argued that observing CMR conduct - which relates to risk management, investment policy, and proactive improvement - decreases regulatory risk for financial firms, while not observing it increases regulatory risk. The primary reason for this is that CMR conduct is perceived to reduce systemic risk, and state actors regard market governance as a shared responsibility with firms. In addition to framing these controversies, CMR theory contributes to our understanding of several concepts in decentralised governance and regulatory capitalism. It illustrates a substantive model of meta-regulation - that is, the regulation of corporate self-regulation. As such, it illustrates substantive limits for private authority and its legitimacy. The observation of CMR also reveals new dimensions of sociological processes in financial governance, particularly markets' social embedded ness, and actors' reliance on performative market models. Finally, CMR illustrates a governance model combining incentives with ethics, as regulators seek to de-legitimise regulatory arbitrage by firms. The analysis concludes by arguing that CMR is increasingly relevant for other substantive contexts such as the hedge funds industry and private markets like 'dark pools'