Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering

Abstract Requirements engineering is a fundamental process in software development phases. At the same time, it is a difficult phase and exposed many ethical violations. The main purpose is proposing an ethical framework for software requirements engineering that addresses the identified concerns. T...

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Main Authors: Seblewongel E. Biable, Nuno M. Garcia, Dida Midekso
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi-IET 2023-08-01
Series:IET Software
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12136
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author Seblewongel E. Biable
Nuno M. Garcia
Dida Midekso
author_facet Seblewongel E. Biable
Nuno M. Garcia
Dida Midekso
author_sort Seblewongel E. Biable
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Requirements engineering is a fundamental process in software development phases. At the same time, it is a difficult phase and exposed many ethical violations. The main purpose is proposing an ethical framework for software requirements engineering that addresses the identified concerns. These concerns include problems associated with a knowledge gap, requirements identification, quality‐related concerns, unwillingness to give requirements, and practicing forbidden activities. These concerns are grouped into a category as the proposed framework components. Each of the categories encompasses more than one problem domain. The proposed framework suggests resolving mechanisms as collections of clauses for each of those concerns. An expert evaluation technique is used to validate the proposed framework. The experts are purposefully selected from software industries and institutions. Questionnaires and focus group discussions were used as data‐gathering tools for the validation of the proposed framework. The validity (face validity, content validity, and construct validity) and the reliability of the proposed framework were checked. The evaluation results show that the proposed framework has an acceptable range of validity and reliability. The proposed framework can be used as a guideline for software engineers to minimise the occurrence of those identified concerns during the requirements engineering process.
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spelling doaj.art-683de84b4eb34935be845e8624b9c13f2023-12-03T00:24:10ZengHindawi-IETIET Software1751-88061751-88142023-08-0117452653710.1049/sfw2.12136Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineeringSeblewongel E. Biable0Nuno M. Garcia1Dida Midekso2Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa EthiopiaFaculdade de Ciências Universidade de Lisboa Lisbon PortugalDepartment of Computer Science Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa EthiopiaAbstract Requirements engineering is a fundamental process in software development phases. At the same time, it is a difficult phase and exposed many ethical violations. The main purpose is proposing an ethical framework for software requirements engineering that addresses the identified concerns. These concerns include problems associated with a knowledge gap, requirements identification, quality‐related concerns, unwillingness to give requirements, and practicing forbidden activities. These concerns are grouped into a category as the proposed framework components. Each of the categories encompasses more than one problem domain. The proposed framework suggests resolving mechanisms as collections of clauses for each of those concerns. An expert evaluation technique is used to validate the proposed framework. The experts are purposefully selected from software industries and institutions. Questionnaires and focus group discussions were used as data‐gathering tools for the validation of the proposed framework. The validity (face validity, content validity, and construct validity) and the reliability of the proposed framework were checked. The evaluation results show that the proposed framework has an acceptable range of validity and reliability. The proposed framework can be used as a guideline for software engineers to minimise the occurrence of those identified concerns during the requirements engineering process.https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12136data privacydata protectionhuman factorssoftware development managementsoftware engineering
spellingShingle Seblewongel E. Biable
Nuno M. Garcia
Dida Midekso
Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering
IET Software
data privacy
data protection
human factors
software development management
software engineering
title Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering
title_full Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering
title_fullStr Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering
title_full_unstemmed Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering
title_short Proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering
title_sort proposed ethical framework for software requirements engineering
topic data privacy
data protection
human factors
software development management
software engineering
url https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12136
work_keys_str_mv AT seblewongelebiable proposedethicalframeworkforsoftwarerequirementsengineering
AT nunomgarcia proposedethicalframeworkforsoftwarerequirementsengineering
AT didamidekso proposedethicalframeworkforsoftwarerequirementsengineering