Imagining the future: A social science approach to the importance of visions in the software development process

A vision or some other form of future concept is crucial for the development of a new software system as the software that is to be developed does not exist yet. So far, the role of visions in Requirements Engineering (RE) is generally acknowledged but underestimated. A possible reason is the lack of a theoretical framework to understand the role of future concepts and their inscribed expectations. This article presents a brief introduction to the importance of future concepts for various technological fields. It introduces theoretical concepts from different disciplinary backgrounds, e.g. sociology of expectations as well as science and technology studies and applies them to the world of software development and the task of RE. The aim is to show the increased need for creativity techniques in order to develop reliable visions for IT projects as well as to spark a broader discussion on the role of future concepts in RE itself.