A stakeholder contribution pattern in requirements decision-making: an empirical study in enterprise development

Stakeholders are the primary source of requirements both as a source of information and for making requirements decisions. However, with different stakeholders having various roles and perspectives, with distinct or even conflicting interests, and uneven power in making requirements decisions, the literature shows little empirical evidence of how these differences affect the ways they contribute to the requirements decision-making, namely, what the different stakeholders’ contribution patterns are. In this respect, this paper addresses one pattern discovered during a qualitative study, part of a larger study, we conducted in an enterprise development environment. The data was collected from observing requirements workshops, examining requirements related documentations, and also formal meetings and informal conversations with practitioners. Based on this data, we classify stakeholders into: the business-focused stakeholders, the development-side stakeholders, and requirements practitioners. We then present a stakeholders’ contribution pattern representing the Who, Why, What, When, and How for different types of stakeholders. This analysis is illustrated with three different typical case stories drawn from the empirical data. Finally, this study provides evidence for the importance of development-side stakeholders along with business-focused stakeholders in requirements decision-making. Thus we encourage shifting the focus to the business-IT partnership when making requirements decisions.