Requirements Engineering for Research Software: A Vision

2024-05-13

IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference

AI Summary

Scientific software development suffers from poorly specified requirements and inadequate management, severely compromising software quality and experimental reproducibility. To address this gap, this study formally establishes scientific software as a novel application domain for requirements engineering (RE). Through eight in-depth interviews with 12 researchers, we conduct an exploratory qualitative study employing thematic coding analysis. Our findings identify three core challenges: (1) highly ambiguous and evolving requirements, (2) latent or unidentified stakeholders, and (3) absence of systematic requirement validation mechanisms. Based on these insights, we propose a domain-specific RE vision and a challenge framework tailored to scientific software contexts. This work lays the theoretical foundation and methodological guidance for lightweight, agile, and traceable RE practices in scientific software development—thereby filling a critical void in systematic RE research for this domain.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Software Engineering
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Qualitative Reasoning
• Search and Optimization: Metareasoning and Metaheuristics

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Interdisciplinary science discovery with web data mining
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization

Abstract

Modern science is relying on software more than ever. The behavior and outcomes of this software shape the scientific and public discourse on important topics like climate change, economic growth, or the spread of infections. Most researchers creating software for scientific purposes are not trained in Software Engineering. As a consequence, research software is often developed ad hoc without following stringent processes. With this paper, we want to characterize research software as a new application domain that needs attention from the Requirements Engineering community. We conducted an exploratory study based on 8 interviews with 12 researchers who develop software. We describe how researchers elicit, document, and analyze requirements for research software and what processes they follow. From this, we derive specific challenges and describe a vision of Requirements Engineering for research software.

Problem

• Software Design
• Demand Management
• Reliability

Innovation

• Scientific Experiment Software
• Design Requirements
• Improvement Directions