Using Data Mining and Recommender Systems to Facilitate Large-Scale, Open, and Inclusive Requirements Elicitation Processes

Requirements related problems, especially those originating from inadequacies in the human-intensive task of eliciting stakeholders' needs and desires, have contributed to many failed and challenged software projects. This is especially true for large and complex projects in which requirements knowledge is distributed across thousands of stakeholders. This short paper introduces a new process and related framework that utilizes data mining and recommender technologies to create an open, scalable, and inclusive requirements elicitation process capable of supporting projects with thousands of stakeholders. The approach is illustrated and evaluated using feature requests mined from an open source software product.