Improving Customer Value Co-creation through Customer Engagement and Requirements Engineering Practices in a Small Software Company

A small software company has startup thinking which is often short-term. This may negate requiring planning for long-term growth, and sustainability, which could have its impact on customer value. Customer engagement (CE) and requirements engineering (RE) practices are customer satisfaction and growth oriented; helping a small software company earn competitive edge, increase productivity, and grow while delivering on customer value. To address the stated problem, the research problem is stated thus: How do CE and RE practices impact customer value (CV) co-creation? An action research study was carried out to understand better CE and RE practices at the case company. For data collection triangulation of semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, participant observation, and work experience were used. Data analysis did use some grounded theory features — interpretative statements in gathering and organizing the data got. CE practices such as having dedicated customer co-creation platform, constantly learning from users, customer segmentation, and broadened view of customer were observed to have positive influence on customer value co-creation. RE practices that advance customer value included customer participation, face-to-face-communication, continuous planning, and requirements management. The level of success of these practices was influenced by differences in customer participation level, elicitation techniques scope, and selection of the techniques. Also, lack of dedicated user environment hinders user interaction and user-centered co-creation. Customer engagement strengthens RE practices through active interaction between provider and customer to positively influence CV co-creation. Such interaction could be amongst provider, customer and end-users. There are four CE practices and seven RE practices established at the case company. Understanding CE significantly, and some of its practices, coupled with RE practices that yield high- perceived value may significantly help improve customer CV co-creation. Practices like detailed documentation, use of prototype, change and requirements management, co-creation platform, and participation in the platform can be improved upon

Generative Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering -- A Research Agenda

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools have become increasingly prevalent in software development, offering assistance to various managerial and technical project activities. Notable examples of these tools include OpenAIs ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Amazon CodeWhisperer. Although many recent publications have explored and evaluated the application of GenAI, a comprehensive understanding of the current development, applications, limitations, and open challenges remains unclear to many. Particularly, we do not have an overall picture of the current state of GenAI technology in practical software engineering usage scenarios. We conducted a literature review and focus groups for a duration of five months to develop a research agenda on GenAI for Software Engineering. We identified 78 open Research Questions (RQs) in 11 areas of Software Engineering. Our results show that it is possible to explore the adoption of GenAI in partial automation and support decision-making in all software development activities. While the current literature is skewed toward software implementation, quality assurance and software maintenance, other areas, such as requirements engineering, software design, and software engineering education, would need further research attention. Common considerations when implementing GenAI include industry-level assessment, dependability and accuracy, data accessibility, transparency, and sustainability aspects associated with the technology. GenAI is bringing significant changes to the field of software engineering. Nevertheless, the state of research on the topic still remains immature. We believe that this research agenda holds significance and practical value for informing both researchers and practitioners about current applications and guiding future research

Evaluación de técnicas de elicitación de requerimientos para lograr la eficacia de pequeños proyectos de desarrollo de software

En este trabajo de investigación se llevó a cabo una evaluación empírica de las combinaciones de técnicas de elicitación de requerimientos, con la finalidad de medir su desempeño en la eficacia sobre pequeños proyectos de desarrollo de software. El problema que abordan generalmente en los proyectos de desarrollo de software es la incertidumbre que existe para elegir las combinaciones de técnicas adecuadas para elicitar un proyecto y mejorar los resultados del mismo. En este trabajo de investigación se empezó por identificar las técnicas de elicitación de requerimientos existentes, con el propósito de someterlas a un proceso de validación por juicio de expertos aplicando el método Delphi, quienes asignaron puntuaciones de acuerdo al grado en que estas se acomodaban a las características de los pequeños proyectos de software. A partir de los resultados obtenidos en el proceso de validación por juicio de expertos de las técnicas de elicitacion, se establecieron 2 combinaciones de técnicas para ser evaluadas. Así mismo, se realizó un pequeño proyecto de desarrollo de software en el cual se aplicaron las 2 combinaciones de técnicas de elicitación seleccionadas en el anterior proceso. Cada combinación se utilizó para realizar un módulo distinto del proyecto. Posteriormente se evaluó la eficacia de cada combinación de técnicas de elicitación, bajo los indicadores de tiempo, costo y calidad en base a la satisfacción del usuario. Para medir los indicadores se tomaron en cuenta los tiempos y costos parciales de cada fase del proyecto, además se aplicó una encuesta de satisfacción a los usuarios que interactúan con el sistema desarrollado. Como resultado general se obtuvo que la combinación 2 conformada por las técnicas de elicitación de requerimientos Entrevista, Sesiones JAD/RAD y Casos de Uso, demostró una eficacia significativamente mayor que la combinación 1 conformada por las técnicas Entrevista, Brainstorming y Prototipos en el desarrollo de pequeños proyectos de software.TesisInfraestructura, Tecnología y Medio Ambient