Open Innovation and CrowdRE for Requirements Change Management in Software Ecosystems

• Paulo Malcher UNIRIO / UFRA
• Davi Viana UFMA
• Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos UNRIO https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4749-2551

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbqs.2025.15155

Abstract

Software ecosystems (SECO) have introduced complexity in requirements change management due to their open and dynamic nature. In SECO, multiple actors collaborate across organizational boundaries and can form distinct crowds that communicate requirements changes. This work proposes a method to assist professionals in requirements change identification in SECO (SECO-RCI) based on open innovation and crowd-based requirements engineering (CrowdRE). We applied Design Science to build SECO-RCI and evaluated its acceptance via a focus group with experts and its feasibility via a case study in a large real-world scenario. The focus group indicated positive acceptance of SECO-RCI, highlighting its ease of use, usefulness, and intention to use. The case study revealed the absence of a standardized approach for requirements change identification and emphasized the importance of centralized visibility across feedback channels. These findings suggest that SECO-RCI assists in addressing key challenges of requirements change in SECO. Consequently, SECO-RCI can improve software quality in complex and distributed development environments, promoting transparent and collaborative management of evolving requirements.

Keywords: Requirements Change Management, Software Ecosystems, Open Innovation, CrowdRE

References

Syed Adnan Afaq and Mohammad Faisal. 2021. An Efficient Approach For Software Requirement Change Identification. Webology 18, 3 (2021), 1919–1926.

Christopher Bogart, Christian Kästner, James Herbsleb, and Ferdian Thung. 2016. How to break an API: cost negotiation and community values in three software ecosystems. In 2016 24th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Foundations of Software Engineering. ACM, NY, USA, 109–120. DOI: 10.1145/2950290.2950325

Sjaak Brinkkemper. 1996. Method engineering: engineering of information systems development methods and tools. Information and Software Technology 38, 4 (1996), 275–280. DOI: 10.1016/0950-5849(95)01059-9 Method Engineering and Meta-Modelling.

Daniela Damian, Johan Linåker, David Johnson, Tony Clear, and Kelly Blincoe. 2021. Challenges and Strategies for Managing Requirements Selection in Software Ecosystems. IEEE Software 38, 6 (2021), 76–87. DOI: 10.1109/MS.2021.3105044

Eduardo Santos Gonçalves, Paulo Malcher, Pablo Oliveira Antonino, and Rodrigo Pereira Santos. 2025. Investigating requirements change requests. In XXI Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas de Informação (SBSI). SBC, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 733–742. DOI: 10.5753/sbsi.2025.246624.

Eduardo Gonçalves, Paulo Malcher, Laura Moraes, Davi Viana, and Rodrigo Pereira Santos. 2024. SECO-RCR: A Tool to Manage Requirements Change in Software Ecosystems. In XXXVIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (Curitiba, PR, Brasil). SBC, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 782–788. DOI: 10.5753/sbes.2024.3606

Eduard C. Groen, Joerg Doerr, and Sebastian Adam. 2015. Towards Crowd-Based Requirements Engineering: A Research Preview. In Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. Springer, Cham, Germany, 247–253. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-16101-3_16

Brian Henderson-Sellers, Jolita Ralyté, Pär J Ågerfalk, and Matti Rossi. 2014. Situational method engineering. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-41467-1

Slinger Jansen. 2020. A focus area maturity model for software ecosystem governance. Information and Software Technology 118 (2020), 106219. DOI: 10.1016/j.infsof.2019.106219

Paulo Malcher. 2024. A Method for Supporting Requirements Change Management in Software Ecosystems Based on Open Innovation and CrowdRE. Ph.D. Thesis. Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO). DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27404.53128

Paulo Malcher, Eduardo Silva, Davi Viana, and Rodrigo Santos. 2023. What do we know about requirements management in software ecosystems? Requirements Engineering 28 (2023), 567–593. DOI: 10.1007/s00766-023-00407-w

Paulo Malcher, Davi Viana, Pablo Oliveira Antonino, and Rodrigo Santos. 2023. Investigating Open Innovation Practices to Support Requirements Management in Software Ecosystems. In Software Business. Springer, Cham, Germany, 35–50. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-53227-6_3

Paulo Malcher, Davi Viana, Pablo Oliveira Antonino, and Rodrigo Santos. 2024. Investigating User Feedback from a Crowd in Requirements Management in Software Ecosystems. Empirical Software Engineering 29, 6 (2024), 152. DOI: 10.1007/s10664-024-10546-5

Paulo Malcher, Davi Viana, Pablo Oliveira Antonino, and Rodrigo Pereira Santos. 2025. Towards an understanding of requirements management in software ecosystems. Information and Software Technology (2025), 107672. DOI: 10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107672

Gabriel Matute, Alvin Cheung, and Sarah Chasins. 2022. Change in Software Ecosystems. In Plateau Workshop. 1–6. DOI: 10.1184/R1/19799314.v1

Ken Peffers, Tuure Tuunanen, Marcus A. Rothenberger, and Samir Chatterjee. 2007. A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research. Journal of Management Information Systems 24, 3 (2007), 45–77. DOI: 10.2753/MIS0742-1222240302

Roel J. Wieringa. 2014. What Is Design Science? Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 3–11. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-43839-8_1