The Use of Design Thinking for Requirements Engineering: An Ongoing Case Study in the Field of Innovative Software-Intensive Systems

Requirements Engineering (RE) has been aiding software-intensive development projects for quite some time now. However, today’s projects growingly demand for agile and human-centered approaches to discover and meet the often fuzzy needs of the various stakeholders involved. In that regard, Design Thinking (DT) has become one of the most promising methods to address complex problems and define innovative solutions. We see potential to combine both, the strongly human-oriented working mode of DT with the more formal, technology-driven world of RE, to develop human-centered solutions more effectively. Yet, little is known how such an integration could be realized and which concrete benefits and challenges to expect. To better understand this endeavor, we conduct a longitudinal case study to identify how DT and RE can work together in an agile development setting from the very beginning of idea conceptualization to market-ready implementation. In this paper, we summarize our research protocol and present first findings how Design Thinking can complement current RE practices through meeting known challenges encountered by the RE community of practitioners. We provide a better understanding of the multi-faceted potential of DT for RE for both, scholars and practitioners, and describe open issues and planned future steps in our study.