Engineering the Intangible: Value Elicitation, Prioritization, and Translation into Requirements

Abstract

With the increasing use of LLMs, requirements engineering has changed significantly. Tasks that were previously conducted by or with stakeholders are now performed by or with LLMs. Consequently, requirements engineers, developers, and the like are increasingly relinquishing their autonomy. To counteract this trend, stakeholders' values should be given greater consideration. Human values have always been a focus in certain areas, such as healthcare and entertainment, but they are relevant to all areas. They shed light on people's basic needs and can reveal the core objectives underlying requirements. In addition to value-sensitive design and IEEE standards, other methods exist for integrating values into the software engineering process. However, few methods incorporate human values throughout the process, from elicitation to documentation. This work aims to implement a process that includes the necessary methods for eliciting, prioritizing, and translating human values into requirements in the context of software development. To achieve this goal, a series of empirical studies will be conducted through surveys, interviews, and workshops, in which the process or individual methods are applied. Similarly, the impact of integrating human values on software quality will be evaluated. The implementation and examination of such a process could help establish a framework to place greater emphasis on human values in software development without significant additional effort.