Towards an Understanding of the Role of Design Thinking for Requirements Elicitation - Findings from a Multiple-Case Study.

Effective requirements elicitation is perceived to be one of the most crucial activities in software-intensive development projects. While many scholars and practitioners have pointed out and agreed upon its numerous challenges, others consider the increasingly popular approach of Design Thinking to be the promising ‘cure.’ This paper provides robust empirical evidence of the role of Design Thinking for requirements elicitation and to help overcome its challenges. Specifically, this paper presents learnings in terms of process guidance, stakeholder communication, and requirements quality based on insights from a multiple-case study. In sum, Design Thinking introduces new structures and methods to enhance elicitation efforts and inspires a mind-shift towards a more human-centered and creative way of requirements elicitation. This work provides a better understanding of the multi-faceted potential of Design Thinking for requirements elicitation for both, scholars and practitioners.