Selecting the Right Stakeholders for Requirements Elicitation: a Systematic Approach

Requirements elicitation is the most critical phase in software development as it captures the required functionality of a software system. The elicitation process is indeed resource intensive. It involves a number of dedicated stakeholders who are deliberately gathered to confer and stipulate software requirements. The effectiveness of the process is greatly influenced by the credibility and suitability of the stakeholders involved. Correct and complete requirements could only be achieved if they are gathered from the right stakeholders. Therefore, there is a need of systematic approach that could help in identifying and choosing the appropriate stakeholders. As stakeholder participation can be enormous, the approach should also embrace prioritization. This study addresses this issue by collating important elements that contribute to an effective selection of stakeholders for requirement elicitation purposes. The elements were identified through reviews of related work, which were analyzed by using content analysis. The elements were then integrated as a conceptual framework that consists of a step-by-step procedure. The framework can be used by practitioners to execute the selection process. To researchers, the study proposes several mechanisms to support the approach as a guide for future research.