Investigating Open Innovation Practices to Support Requirements Management in Software Ecosystems

Abstract

Software ecosystems (SECO) affect requirements management when considering multiple actors (i.e., keystone, third-party developer, users) from different organizations using several communication channels such as issue trackers and forums. To deal with this scenario, professionals involved in requirements management in SECO have resorted to several open innovation (OI) practices. Our study aims to investigate OI practices applied to support requirements management in SECO. We conducted a field study based on interviews with 21 professionals involved in requirements management activities in SECO. We identified 10 OI practices to support requirements management in SECO and 14 communication channels to receive/provide requirements from/to external actors. OI practices identified in this study can help practitioners manage requirements in the SECO context in which they are engaged, making this process more informal, open, and collaborative.