On the Interaction between Socio-Technical Dimensions in the Next Generation of Requirements Engineering

The practice of human-centered methodologies for software development, such as agile methodologies, is impacted by the surrounding technological environment. This paper analyzes the potential of the Mobile Social Web in facilitating the social dimension of agile requirements engineering. In doing so, an agile requirements engineering process (AREP) is presented. AREP consists of a nonlinear sequence of technical activities, each of which is supported by a number of social activities. The interplay between activities underlying AREP and Social Web applications is illustrated by means of representative examples. The relationships to other software project artifacts, and to open source software (OSS), are highlighted.