Sharp, Finkelstein & Galal Stakeholder Identification in the Requirements Engineering Process Helen Sharp Centre for HCI Design, School of Informatics, City University, Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0HB, UK, h. c. sharp@soi. city.
ac. uk Anthony Finkelstein & Galal Galal Computer Science Department, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK (a. finkelstein, g. galal)@cs. ucl.
ac. uk Abstract Adequate, timely and effective consultation of relevant stakeholders is of paramount importance in the requirements engineering process.However, the thorny issue of making sure that all relevant stakeholders are consulted has received less attention than other areas which depend on it, such as scenario-based requirements, involving users in development, negotiating between different viewpoints and so on. The literature suggests examples of stakeholders, and categories of stakeholder, but does not provide help in identifying stakeholders for a specific system.
In this paper, we discuss current work in stakeholder identification, propose an approach to identifying relevant stakeholders for a specific system, and propose future directions for the work.Information systems (IS) researchers have also taken up the idea of stakeholders: OWe define stakeholders as these participants together with any other individuals, groups or organisations whose actions can influence or be influenced by the development and use of the system whether directly or indirectly. O [22] In software engineering, stakeholders have been defined as: OThe people and organisations affected applicationO [3] by theOSystem stakeholders are people or organisations who will be affected by the system and who have a direct or indirect influence on the system requirementsO [16] OStakeholders are people who have a stake or interest in the projectO [4] 1. What is a OstakeholderO? There is a large body of literature in the strategic management area which discusses organisations in terms of a stakeholder model. Stakeholder analysis, it is claimed, can be used to analyse an organisationOs performance and determine its future strategic direction.
An oft-quoted definition of OstakeholderO, taken from a key reference in this literature is: OA stakeholder in an organisation is (by definition) any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisationOs objectives. O [10] A much broader definition, which has also been attributed to Freeman, is that a stakeholder is Oanything influencing or influenced byO the firm, but it has been claimed that this definition is problematic because it leads to the identification of a very broad set of stakeholders.It is important to distinguish between influencers and stakeholders because while some potential stakeholders may indeed be both stakeholders and influencers, some who have a real stake in an enterprise may have no influence, e. g. a job applicant, while some influencers may have no stake, e.
g. the media [8]. A more explicit refinement of this definition is: OE anyone whose jobs will be altered, who supplies or gains information from it, or whose power or influence within the organisation will increase or decrease.O [7] They go on to say that OIt will frequently be the case that the formal OclientO who orders the system falls very low on the list of those affected. Be very wary of changes which take power, influence or control from some stakeholders without returning something tangible in its place. O [7] When faced with the practical problem of how to identify the set of stakeholders relevant to a specific project, these definitions are not particularly helpful.
