Using Vision Videos for Requirements Engineering (ViViUse)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Kurt Schneider
• Subject Area: Software Engineering and Programming Languages
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 289386339

Software provides value if it meets customer needs and satisfies the expectations of stakeholders. It is important to elicit, communicate, and validate requirements among stakeholders and developers in order to build the right product, according to customer needs. Although correct requirements are recognized as a prerequisite for customer satisfaction, many companies prefer affordable approaches to foster communication. Videos could help to established shared understanding among project participants. Video has been identified as a good medium for capturing rich information at very limited extra effort. Recording is easy and inexpensive. Nevertheless, video is hardly used in companies to support requirements engineering (RE). Both guidance and value estimates for video in RE are still missing today. We want to find out whether there are affordable ways to overcome common problems and help to exploit the potential of video in RE.We propose three concepts that are explored and evaluated in this project: (1) Avoid frequent obstacles and mistakes by providing a guideline inspired by different disciplines, such as law, movie production, sociology, and software engineering. (2) Reduce effort and integrate video into the value chain of requirements engineering. (3) Turn vision videos into an interactive medium. Interactive video accommodates change, the discussion of alternatives, and evolution of requirements. Interactive vision videos support imagination and decision making, which is essential for project success.We take a radical position with respect to the choice of tools, skills, and talents required to record and edit videos. Video recording should be feasible and affordable for any software project. No advanced hardware, skills, or talents should be required; no sophisticated scripting or preparation of the recording should be necessary. This makes the innovation affordable to companies of any size, including SMEs. Empirical investigations and constructive steps take turns in the ViViReq project. A survey among professionals will empirically investigate the subjective perception and attitude towards video in practical requirements engineering. The broad survey will be followed up by in-depth interviews, a qualitative analysis, and a quantitative validation survey. There will be empirical validations after each constructive step.Expected Benefit: Potentials and pitfalls of video in RE are identified. Companies (including SMEs) get concrete suggestions for improvement. Suggestions will be backed by empirical results on the impact of video on stakeholder attitude, work practices, and RE effectiveness. Software professionals and companies gain a novel instrument for improving shared understanding and software quality at affordable effort: interactive vision video and the concepts associated with it. Researchers obtain detailed results on improvement concepts that can stimulate and guide future research on video in RE.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants